To the left, transport agency tells motorcyclists

Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 12/23/2009 8:09 AM

Starting next year, the transportation agency will install additional road signs to support the traffic regulation ruling motorcyclists are to use the left side of the road.

“There’s actually a written regulation that stipulates motorcyclists are to use the left lane, but it’s not actually obeyed, or even enforced,” M. Akbar, head of the agency’s traffic engineering and management division, told The Jakarta Post via telephone Tuesday.

He said the agency had finished installing road signs and markers on six major thoroughfares: Jl. Sudirman, Jl. Thamrin, Jl. Merdeka Barat and Jl. Suprapto in Central Jakarta, as well as Jl. Pemuda and Jl. Pramuka in East Jakarta.

The road signs and markers on the six streets, he said, were aimed at reminding road users to obey the rules.

“We will gradually phase in the signs on other streets,” Akbar said.

An article in the 2009 Traffic Law states that motorcycles, slow vehicles, commercial vehicles and non-motorized vehicles should use the left side of the road. Another section rules that the right lane is dedicated to vehicles that are turning to the right or passing another vehicle.

Violators of the law could face a maximum sentence of one month in prison and a fine of Rp 250,000 (US$26).

Akbar said it was not the agency’s intention to impose regulations that would prohibit motorcycles from using the main thoroughfares.

“We don’t want to prohibit motorcycles [from using these streets], we just want to be able to better manage motorcycle traffic,” he said.

The deputy head of the agency, Riza Hashim, had previously said the agency would take certain steps before applying a policy that would ban motorcycles from certain streets.

The agency, he said, would start by creating special lanes dedicated to motorcyclists in certain streets.

“Following that, we can take the next step of prohibiting motorcycles from using certain key streets,” he was quoted as saying Sunday by Warta Kota daily.

Previous proposals to prohibit motorcycles from using Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin first surfaced during the term of former governor Sutiyoso in 2006 and were roundly criticized by motorcyclists.

Sutiyoso had expected to reduce traffic congestion by applying the policy. Similar regulations have been implemented on major thoroughfares in Beijing and Shanghai in China.

To date, the policy has not been implemented because no legal regulations governing the policy have been issued.

The concept, first floated last year, of having special motorcycle lanes has also sparked controversy among road users who feared the policy could instead worsen traffic congestion with millions of motorcycles scrambling for limited space.

In 2007, data from the Jakarta Police showed the number of motorcycles in the city had reached 3 million. This figure is predicted to have grown an additional 10 to 20 percent in the last two years.

This year alone, Jakarta Police have recorded more than 600 deaths from 6,286 road accidents, of which 3,606 accidents, more than half the total, involved motorcyclists.