Lenny Tristia Tambun, Jakarta Globe, 4 Oct 13;
The Jakarta transportation agency plans to implement an electronic road pricing scheme that will automatically charge toll fees on cars using roads in the city during certain hours.
The scheme, announced on Monday, will require drivers to place transponder in their car that automatically deducts money from a prepaid card.
The system is expected to ease traffic congestion by making it prohibitively expensive for people to drive in downtown Jakarta.
Police said last week they expect the transponders to be able to track any car moving through Jakarta at any time or speed.
The electronic road pricing scheme replaces earlier plans to apply odd-and-even plate number restrictions.
Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo ordered the transportation agency to implement the ERP scheme within the first quarter of 2014, agency chief Udar Pristono said.
“It is not possible for us to commence the system in January because we still don’t have enough buses as a public transportation alternative. We have to procure the buses first,” he said.
Udar said the first stage of the ERP scheme will be implemented on Rasuna Said, since the area has three busway corridors, thereby offering alternatives.
Udar said his office is still waiting for revision of a 2009 bylaw on regional taxes to authorize the system.
He also criticized plans to exempt motorcycles from charges under the electronic road pricing scheme, saying such an exemption would not significantly reduce traffic congestion.
“We want [motorcycles] to also be subject to ERP charges. Otherwise, more people will buy motorcycles and traffic congestion will not significantly change,” he said.
Jakarta City Council Deputy Speaker Triwisaksana said the ERP scheme should be implemented immediately.
“For the ERP system, the regulations needed to implement the policy are sufficient and we hope the system can be implemented immediately,’ he said.
Electronic traffic surveillance and road pricing systems, such as envisaged by the Jakarta administration and police, are exceptionally rare anywhere in the world.
Almost all cities that have implemented such a system did so only after rigorous protections for civil liberties were codified in written regulations following a period of public debate.
Civil rights groups have yet to weigh in on how the administration and police’s plans fit with existing privacy laws.
Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said the electronic road pricing scheme was crucial entry point for the an Electronic Registration and Identification system that the administration hopes to unroll by 2015.
This system will aid vehicle tax collection and police efforts to crack down on vehicle-related crime.
Police said last week it will give them vast new capabilities to assess fines for traffic violations and track vehicles’ movements.
Jakarta police traffic director Sr. Comr. Chrysnanda Dwilaksana said the Electronic Registration and Identification system will be a game changer, radically overhauling the national vehicle registration system.
Basuki added that the odd-even traffic scheme announced last March would be dropped if the electronic road pricing scheme is accelerated, along with the procurement of new TransJakarta and local buses.
Deputy Minister for Transportation Bambang Susantono previously said odd-and-even plate number restrictions were not an ideal solution.
Bambang favored using the money and manpower required to enforce such a scheme to build better public transportation instead.
The electronic road pricing scheme will likely appeal to lawmakers with an eye on revenues, as elsewhere such schemes have been a tax boon to cities.
The odd-even scheme would have replaced the current “three-in-one” policy that restricts cars’ access to certain streets based on their number of occupants. It is unclear whether the “three-in-one” policy will continue under electronic road pricing.
Separately, Basuki said this week that the city administration plans to take all privately registered vehicles older than 10 years off the streets, as part of the governor’s plans to cut back private vehicle ownership.
Yoga Adiwinarto, who directs the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, said he supports authorities’ plans to impose vehicle age limits. Vehicle age limits had proven effective elsewhere in reducing exhaust emissions and car use, he said.
Yoga added that the idea had long been discussed by city officials but never implemented.
Jakarta’s traffic costs on the city Rp 35 trillion for pollution-related health problems alone, according to Ahmad Safrudin of Transportation Demand Management.
City mulls ‘manual’ ERP method
Fikri Zaki Muhammadi, Jakarta Post, 7 Oct 13;
In the latest effort to reduce the city’s frustrating traffic problems, the Jakarta administration says it is studying the feasibility of implementing “manual road pricing”.
The implementation of electronic road pricing (ERP) will have to wait until the first quarter of 2014 at the earliest as the procurement of the onboard units — electronic detectors — is still in process.
The City Council is currently preparing the legal work for the move.
Deputy Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said the administration acknowledged the possible delay, but still wanted to take measures immediately to cut the use of private vehicles.
The odd-even license number policy thought to reduce the number of cars on the road has been almost certainly cancelled as administration and police studies show its implementation is not feasible, instead only promoting the purchase of more cars.
“We’re discussing the possibility of implementing a manual ERP before the onboard unit procurement finishes. But we’re still in talks,” Ahok told reporters over the weekend.
Ahok said the proposed system would be similar to ERP, yet the supervision would be done manually. It will require car owners to paste a hologram sticker, which is obtained after paying the “road price”, on their cars in order to be allowed access to certain roads prone to traffic congestion.
“The sticker can be sold for between Rp 1 million [US$87] and Rp 2 million,” Ahok said. “It may be paid monthly, or annually. We will see.”
The system, if approved, will be implemented in early 2014, after the administration finishes procuring 800 new Transjakarta buses to act as alternatives to using private cars.
To check the validity of the hologram stickers, Ahok said the administration would deploy field officers from the Transportation Agency, with assistance from the police.
“Supervision can be carried out through visual observations or random sweeps. We can use scanners on the cars at parking spots,” the deputy governor said.
As for those unable to pay for the stickers, Ahok said he would provide free buses, making it easier for citizens to access the area. The deputy governor was certain this system could gradually push car owners to use public transportation.
To show the administration’s commitment to promoting the use of public transportation, Ahok also said he was discussing the option of using rented cars for his civil servants.
He said there was an option to sell the existing cars.
“In really urgent matters, we can rent cars. Otherwise, use buses,” he said. “This way, the administration is free from maintenance and depreciation charges too.”
In another move, the administration will increase the vehicle-ownership transfer fee (BBNKB) next year, thus upping the price of secondhand cars.
Owning more than one car will also become costlier as the progressive tax will be raised, despite the recently-introduced low-cost green car (LCGC) policy.
The BBNKB will be increased to 20 percent of a secondhand vehicle’s value, from the current 10 percent, while the progressive tax code will be set at between 2 and 8 percent of the vehicle value, rising from 1.5 percent to 4 percent.
This will impose a 1 to 2 percent tax rate on the first vehicle owned by any individual and 2 to 10 percent on subsequent vehicle purchases.
It has been predicted the LCGC policy will boost car sales by 50,000 in the city, out of a nationwide target of 1.1 million, this year.
