Odd-even traffic restrictions in Jakarta starts in June

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - The Jakarta Administration has decided to implement the odd-even license plate system to reduce traffic congestion in the capital city as of June 2013.

Initially the new traffic restriction system would be applied starting March 2013 but it was postponed because the production of strikers needed to support the traffic system was still in the process, the Jakarta administration`s transportation office head, Udar Pristono, said last week. The administration has yet to procure 3.5 million vehicle stickers worth 12.5 billion IDR (1.3 million USD) because of the late approval of the 2013 city budget, according to him.

"This even-odd (license plate policy) requires stickers, and it needs funds and a period of time to procure those stickers," he added.

The policy, aiming to limit cars on the roads based on license plate numbers, will temporarily replace the current "3-in-1" carpool zones. It will be effective from 6 am to 8 pm on weekdays particularly on roads used by the Transjakarta Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system and a number of other main streets such as on Jalan Letjen Suprapto, Jalan Rasuna Said, and Jalan Pramuka.

"We hope the policy would be able to reduce traffic jams in Jakarta," he said.

Under the plan, cars with odd-numbered license plates will be banned on even dates and vice versa. The transportation service of Jakarta is preparing two kinds of stickers to be put on cars with odd and even number plates - red for odd numbers and green for even numbers. At the initial stage the system would only be applied to cars but later it would also be applied on other kinds of vehicles, he said.

Jakarta`s Governor Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, expressed his optimism that the delay in the traffic system implementation would make the system more effective. The postponement would enable the authorities to prepare better supporting facilities and launch public awareness campaign on the system implementation, the governor said.

According to the national police traffic data, the number of vehicles in Jakarta rose to 13,347,802 units in 2011. This figure consisted of 2.54 million passenger cars, 581 thousand cargo cars or trucks, 363 thousand buses and 9,861,451 motorcycles.

From 2004 to 2010, number of vehicles in Jakarta grew at 12 percent annually, while road length only grew at 0.01 percent. Last year, the Indonesian Ministry of Public Works warned that Jakarta would face extremely severe traffic congestion in 2014 due to the growing number of vehicles that exceeded the road capacity.