People who live in Jakarta cannot avoid traffic congestion. Basically, those situations can be found on artery roads and headquarters of roads. The uncontrolled increase in the number of vehicles, especially cars and motorcycles, could worsen traffic congestion. Traffic congestion has been a serious problem and has long been a nightmare for both the residents and people who have important assignments to Jakarta. A revolutionary idea has been done to avoid that serious problem during the reign of Mr. Sutiyoso (Jakarta’s Governor 1997-2007). He developed the “Macro Transportation Scheme (JMaTS)” integrating all public transportation, which has been existed for long time as government companies such as Bus ways, Light Rail Transit (LRT), and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) (Jakarta’s Transportation 2011:1). However, this revolutionary program has not been applied and implemented well. It can be seen that traffic congestions are still happened in Jakarta. Even the Environmentalist predicted that there could be a stagnant traffic jam in the city in 2014 (Jakarta’s Transportation 2011:1). People would stuck in the traffic jam right in front of their houses because the growth of car is faster and that the capacity of the road. It is like a frightening circumstance. But it could happen logically. Thus, some measurements related to traffic congestions factors need to be carried out now to avoid the probably situation predicted by the Environmentalist by identifying the existing transportation condition and problems, their effects on Jakarta and alternative solutions that could be taken to reduce these effects.
The number of transport modes has been growing quickly and is out of control. According to Jakarta Regional Police, the number of registered motor vehicles has increased by 650 percent from 1.5 million in 1998 to 11.3 million in 2010 (Asri & Hidayat 2005:1793, and Ardiansyah 2010:1). There were 8,244,346 units of motorcycle and 3,118,050 units of car operated in Jakarta in 2010. 98 percent of car’s number belonged to private citizens (Noorastuti & Mahaputra 2009:1). The growth rate of motor vehicle is also very high, reaching 10.9 percent per year (Marayoga 2010:1). Unfortunately, this highly number is not followed by the road quantity. The availability of road infrastructure’s quantity, according to Indonesian Police of Metro Jaya, is only about 7,650 kilometers long, with the total roads area of 40.1 m2 or only 6.26 percent of the total area of Jakarta City, whereas the growth rate of road quantity is only 0.01 percent per year (Ardiansyah 2009:1). In fact, the ideal ratio between road quantity and the total area is 14 percent (Marayoga 2010:1).
An increase in motor vehicles quantity and the subsequent congestion generate problems affecting daily social life. Not only environment such as air quality, but also people’s health will be impacted.
The first problem is the waste time and the delays of motorists and passengers directly impacted by road users. As a non-productive daily activity for most of people, traffic congestions influence the regional activities of citizens, resulting late arrival for employment, meetings, and education (Kemacetan 2010). At the peak traffic congestions, the average speed is only 10-25km/hour in the morning and 7-24 km/hour in the afternoon (Department of Transportation, 2007 cited in Butaru et al. 2011:1).
The second problem is wasted fuel. Due to the low average velocity in Jakarta, the consumption of fuel increases significantly. Basically, traveling speed has a significant effect on fuel consumption and the lowest fuel consumption rates occur in speed rate of 40 to 55 km/h (SITRAMP 2004 cited in Asri and Hidayat 2005:1795). Based on SITRAMP 2004 analysis (Rp 8.3 Triliun Terbuang karena Kemacetan di Jakarta 2010:1), prolonged traffic congestions in Jakarta lead to wastage amounting to 8.3 billion Indonesian Rupiahs per year.
The third one is the increasing of air pollution. The share of motor vehicles contributes about 70 percent of total air pollution in Jakarta. This poor of air quality also causes many social problems, especially health problems. According to data from Ciptomangunkusumo Hospital, 46 percent of diseases, including respiratory infection, asthma, and lung cancer in Jakarta are caused by air pollution (Marayoga 2010:1)
The fourth problem is wear and tear on vehicle as a result of idling in traffic and frequent acceleration and braking. Congestion makes motorists drive their vehicles a longer time traveling. That is why, these lead to higher maintenance and repair costs for vehicle owners (Traffic Congestion 2011).
The fifth one is the stressed and frustrated motorists, encouraging road rage and reduced health of motorists, are also affected by the congestion. Psychologically, the motorists will easily get angry, sensitively complain, and tend to act egoistically. Absolutely these could decrease their health condition (Traffic Congestion 2011).
The last problem is about the traffic accidents. Traffic congestions sometimes cause accidents, even though it is not a main factor. Human factors, including the driver behaviors, visual and auditory acuity, decision-making ability, and the reaction speed are the main causes of traffic accidents.
There are four general solutions that could be applied for reducing the congestion. The first one is to control the growth of motor vehicle ownership (Lagi, Dikaji Pembahasan Penggunaan Kendaraan Pribadi 2011:1). Requiring the certificate of entitlement for the motor vehicles ownerships is a part of this control. It means that every one is absolutely allowed to buy a motor vehicle. However, they must buy this certificate of eligibility if they want to drive it. This certificate will be given after checking the actual data of ex-vehicle ownership. The period of vehicles usages, applied in many modern countries, can be applied in Jakarta, such as five years period of usage, in which Japan also apply this policy. Announcing the banning for purchasing illegal vehicles, such as buying a car from black market without a legal certificate of ownership from government, is also another way to decrease the growth of motor vehicles (How to Reduce Traffic Jam in Jakarta? 2009:1).
The rate Increasing of the tax of vehicles and fuel are the second way to reduce the growing number of vehicle (How to Reduce Traffic Jam in Jakarta? 2009:1). The Increasing of these are a new policy declared by the Government recently. The increasing the rate of the tax of vehicles is 5-10 percent on the private vehicles and then 2.5-5 percent is for public transportation. Nowadays, the rate of the tax of fuel is 5 percent and equal occur between the private vehicles and the public transportation. However, it is necessary to be considered by the Government to differentiate between the rate of the tax of fuel private vehicle and public transportation.
Public transportation development should receive a serious attention from the government. The availability of bus rapid transit facilities should be improved, the subway facility planning has to be accelerated and applied as soon as possible, and the delayed monorail construction should be continued. Thus, the third solution is to increase the road capacity including the enlargement of existing roads and fly-over roads, and also pedestrianization, and non-vehicle way facility like bike pathways.
Successfully promoting the Bike to Work movement is the last way to reduce the traffic congestion in Jakarta. Bike to work movement is the program riding their bike to work instead. This Program has many additional benefits including practicing of healthy life, improving our spirit, and reducing global warming effects. This Program has been started in many countries like United State, Mexico, and Singapore. Nowadays, this program has been in Indonesia. Basically, Many of Indonesian people appreciate this Program and they hope that Bike to work movement is a new solution to resolve the traffic congestion in Jakarta. However, bike pathways in Jakarta are not available and many of them are difficult to apply this program in Indonesia. Besides the bike pathways problem, bicycle riders also do not have insurance if there is something happen on the road such as accident or losing the bicycles. That is why the Government of Jakarta has to facilitate bicycle’s infrastructure such as policy and bicycle line (How to Reduce Traffic Jam in Jakarta? 2009:1).
All of these solutions should be implemented simultaneously as the main components of transportation system. We could not depend on particularly one effort because all of these are important. Basically, It’s not easy to overcome the problem of traffic congestions in Jakarta. However, at least those should become the continually efforts to be done, not only by the Government but also the contributions of the society, to manage a good transportation system. If the public transport facilities can be available well, then the transitional use of private vehicles to the public transportation, as the highest number of transport modes in Jakarta, can be applied gradually that the use of public transportation can be an option of which is equivalent to the use of private vehicles in the future. To accelerate and support the implementing of these solutions, it is recommended to develop this research topic in the future to pursue more integrated approach, economic approach, and political approach in transport planning without generating emissions that threaten public health and global climate (Asri and Hidayat 2005:1798).
References
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Asri, D.A., and Hidayat, B. (2005). “Current Transportation Issues in Jakarta and It’s Impacts on Environment.” Proceeding of the Asia Society for Transmigration Studies, 5, 1792-1798.
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Noorastuti, P.T, and Mahaputra, S.A. (2009). “Hanya Busway Angkutan yang paling Manusiawi.” < http://us.metro.vivanews.com/news/read/67626-_hanya_busway_angkutan_paling_manusiawi_> (July 13, 2011).
Rp. 8.3 Triliun Terbuang karena Kemacetan di Jakarta. (2010). <http://ordtraining.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/rp-83-triliun-terbuang-karena-kemacetan-di-jakarta/> (July 13, 2011).
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