Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Transportation Office of Jakarta is applying a "push and pull" strategy to protect air quality in the capital, which has been worsening over the past few days.

The "push" strategy involves controlling people’s need for using cars or motorcycles through traffic handling in Jakarta, Head of the Jakarta Transportation Office Syafrin Liputo explained here on Friday.

The efforts include encouraging traffic restrictions by implementing odd-even rationing, disincentive parking fees, and vehicle emission tests.

He said the imposition of the highest parking fee for vehicles that do not pass the emission test can encourage people to maintain their vehicles better.

Meanwhile, the "pull" strategy involves providing alternative means of transportation that are more efficient by improving public transportation services and accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists.

An example of this is developing the accessibility of integrated public transportation in Jakarta, such as improving the first-mile and last-mile services to get more people to use TransJakarta buses.

"With the improvement of services, automatically, people will be attracted to use public transportation services. Thus, it is expected that (the use of) motorized vehicles will slowly be abandoned," he said.

Liputo underlined that despite the strategy, all people are expected to participate in protecting the air quality, especially in Jakarta.

"In principle, these all cannot be done by the Jakarta provincial government alone, but all elements of the community must play an active role," he said.

To support efforts to reduce air pollution sources, the Jakarta provincial government has the Governor Regulation Number 66 of 2020 on motorized vehicle exhaust emission tests and Governor Regulation Number 76 of 2020 concerning traffic restrictions with an odd-even system.

In addition, the efforts are also backed by Governor Instruction Number 66 of 2019 concerning air quality control.

Based on data from the IQAir website, as of June 16, 2023, Jakarta's air quality index stood at 117, which is categorized as unhealthy for sensitive groups.

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Translator: Luthfia Miranda, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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