Jakarta Routinely Congests Again, PDIP: It's Not Clear Efforts By Provincial Government To Overcome Congestion

VOI congestion dock at Lenteng Agung

JAKARTA - Traffic conditions in Jakarta are jammed again even though the COVID-19 pandemic is still hitting. Member of Commission B of the DKI DPRD from the PDIP faction, Gilbert Simanjuntak, assessed that this happened because DKI Governor Anies Baswdan's efforts to overcome congestion were not optimal.

"Currently, the (traffic) condition is normal. It is not clear how the DKI Provincial Government is trying to deal with congestion," Gilbert said when contacted, Thursday, April 7.

In fact, some time ago, Anies had revealed that the level of congestion in Jakarta was decreasing. This is based on the results of a TomTom survey that in 2021 Jakarta will be ranked 46th out of 404 most congested cities in the world.

At that time, Anies claimed that the reduction in congestion was due to the transformation of the transportation system that he had carried out while leading the capital city.

With Jakarta's traffic jam again, Gilbert expressed his doubts about Anies' claim. This is because, when Jakarta's traffic jams decreased last year, at that time the government carried out various restrictions on activities and people's mobility.

Meanwhile, if Jakarta is currently back in traffic jams, it will definitely happen because activities have been relaxed, starting from the implementation of PTM with 100 percent capacity, to the capacity of transportation modes that are already normal.

"The governor's claim yesterday was actually a kind of public lie. At that time it was said that the conditions were not traffic jams, because all WFH and children also did not attend school. So, now this is a real condition, not yesterday," said Gilbert.

It is known, the Directorate of Traffic of the Polda Metro Jaya recorded an increase in the number of vehicles on the streets of the Capital City. The reason is the work from home scheme which is no longer applied during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There is an increase of 10 to 18 percent," said Traffic Director of Polda Metro Jaya Kombes Sambodo Purnomo Yogo to reporters.

The increase in the number of vehicles that lead to congestion is due to two things. First, because of the increase in community activity. This is because the government has lowered the level of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM).

Moreover, companies in Jakarta are no longer implementing the WFH scheme. So, people started to work as usual. "Community activities have increased and many offices are full. There is no longer WFH," said Sambodo.