"The Indonesian Transportation Society has provided us the data on the losses caused by traffic congestions," Jakarta Provincial Transportation Agency Chief Andri Yansyah informed newsmen in Bekasi, West Java, on Monday.
Yansyah pointed out that traffic congestions had forced the public to spend significantly on fuel costs for their cars and health costs due to air pollution.
The losses incurred are a huge figure, which had been borne by the public until now.
At present, some two million people, with varied interests, from Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi (Bodetabek) commute to and from Jakarta on a daily basis.
The Jakarta Provincial Transportation Agency is currently mapping out several points of congestion in Jakarta based on the road capacity and the increase in the number of vehicles in the local area.
Various attempts to parse the traffic congestion in Jakarta were made through several policies, by improving mass transportation services, such as operating commuter line trains and buses of large-, medium-, and small-scale capacity, among other things.
"We are currently expanding the route of the Transjakarta network to link the Bodetabek area in our efforts to make private vehicle users switch to using public transportation," Andri remarked.
He noted that until now, 13 percent of the targeted 60 percent private vehicle users had switched to using mass transport fleet. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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