Reorganized Parking Areas along the City Roads

Jakarta as a metropolitan city surprisingly doesn’t have a comprehensive regulation on the parking areas along the city side roads, even in the busiest areas in the heart of the city. The clear example of this is the misuse of side roads of Hayam Wuruk and Gajah Mada which connect the administrative area with the downtown.

The parking areas along the side roads of these lanes have long been known as the source of traffic jam almost all day long. The city government seems indifferent toward the situation and blames instead that the number of cars crossing Jakarta is too many.

Realizing that the situation becomes worse and worse the city government issued the regulation forbidding anybody to park the vehicle along the side roads of those two lanes. As the alternative, the drivers who want to stop-by along those two lanes are required to park their vehicles at certain appointed spots especially the buildings or shopping centers having parking lots. Those areas are able to accommodate cars which are enough to replace the number of cars which were used to park along the side roads of those two lanes.

The drivers who were reluctant to follow this regulation simply parked their vehicles on the sidewalks hampering the pedestrians’ ways, permitted at the discretion of the parking-men. Obviously, this outrageous act paying no attention to the convenience of pedestrians definitely could not be tolerated for whatever reasons.

Following the stipulation of the policy, hundreds of registered parking-men along the two roads held a demo protesting for the policy. As they lost the jobs, the city government has removed them to other areas around Jakarta or channeled to special buildings with parking lots.

The government seemed determined to follow up with the policy and ignore the protests of the businessmen and traders who own the offices or shops along the two roads. The traders argued that buyers would be getting less as they should park their vehicles far away from the shops.

As the city government wants to restore order, a plan is set up to maintain the function of the sidewalk by making it a little bit higher and make the areas more greenery by planting more trees and putting big pots containing flowers. At certain spots, iron pipes are already stuck deep into the ground to prevent any motorcycles and cars to pass through the sidewalks.

Today city officials are in the process of setting up the Detailed Engineering Design, and the project will be auctioned in the early of 2012. The city government should make sure that the public space for a pedestrian will not be taken over by sidewalk traders, which is the acute problem as occurs in anywhere else within the city.    

We hope that the project applied for Jalan Hayam Wuruk and Gajah Mada would be extended to other main roads throughout the city.