Unfair road toll hike

Unfair road toll hike

Severe traffic jams on Monday should make the operator of the
toll road aware that it is unfair to raise the toll tariff.
Officials should take steps to avoid traffic jams in the first
place, give information regarding the current state of the toll
road and provide solutions, such as asking car drivers to use
alternative roads.

The state owned (Jasa Marga) operator of the toll road could
actually take such measures, because its communication center is
located in the Jagorawi (Jakarta-Bogor-Ciawi) region and has a
large network of branches found from Cikampek to Tangerang and
from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to Tanjung Priok port.

Onsite officials allow cars to enter the toll road, even when
there are already traffic jams, because more vehicles mean more
income for the operator. Car drivers are only aware of a traffic
jam when they are already stuck in it. The continuous inflow of
cars worsens the situation on the toll roads, which charge a
minimum of Rp 3,000 per car.

Compared to toll roads abroad, our toll roads are actually no
different from regular roads. There are no facilities like
emergency telephones, noise-breakers, lighting, to help drivers
at night. Thus, the cost of the toll road construction and
operation in Indonesia is much lower, if you exclude the level of
corruption.

The toll road operator cannot say that one need not use the
facility if one doesn't like it, because the management is owned
by the state, hence also by the public.

The management must instead improve its service and manage the
toll roads transparently if it wants to raise its tolls. Many
believe that the operator earns enormous profits as the toll
roads are always crowded with cars. So is it just mismanagement,
greediness or is corruption involved?

-- Warta Kota, Jakarta