Bandung Congestion Must Be Immediately Disaffected So That It Doesn't Collapse

A number of vehicles were stuck in traffic jams during the green light at the Team of the Pejuang-Halimun Student Road, Bandung City, West Java, Monday (13/2/2023). (ANTARA)

Transportation observer from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) Sony Sulaksono said the city of Bandung, West Java, has the potential to collapse if there is no massive movement to deal with transportation problems that cause traffic jams. According to him, the Bandung City Government needs to make a very massive movement to be able to make people switch to public transportation. Because, he said, the policy of limiting the use of private vehicles in Bandung is quite difficult to do. "Right now people have more than one car or motorbike. It is impossible for the Bandung Transportation Agency to prohibit people from buying cars, boarding cars, raising taxes is also not allowed," said Sony, quoted by ANTARA, Monday, February 13. According to him, the fact from the Bandung City Transportation Service (Dishub) revealed that the number of vehicles almost one to one with the number of residents was an unavoidable factor of congestion. Soy said that if this was allowed, then finally the number of vehicles could exceed the number of residents. The Transportation Agency noted that there were 2.2 million vehicles in Bandung, while the total population was 2.3 million people. "It might even be more, one to one, or even 1.5 to one," he said.

"In my opinion, it is because there is no consistency to encourage people to switch to using public transportation," he said. In order to overcome this, according to him, it requires a process that will not take time. The key, he said, is that the government must seriously intensify the use of public transportation to the public. "Unable to, now it is arranged, next year it will be done, general transportation is a process of changing behavior," said Sony.