Roadside vendors hamper traffics

Roadside vendors hamper traffics
9th July 2008
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/07/09/letter-roadside-vendors-hamper-traffics.html

I read with interest your coverage of the ITDP seminar (The Jakarta Post, July 2, p.2), which concluded that more and more usage of the busway could save as much as US$26 million per year!
This may be mathematically correct and, if fuel prices continue to rise the way they are doing presently, that day may not be far off.
But, in the meantime, can the city administration look at another major reason for wastage of fuel, i.e., traffic jams due not to too many vehicles but because of obstruction by various kiosks (warung) by the roadside and also because of parking of buses/metro-minis along the roads?
Take the example of Jl. Raya Bekasi, which I use daily to go to work. I come in a jiffy until Pulogadung Trade Center, and then get stuck because from the IGI factory until the T-junction leading to Bauran, there are warung on the northern side and every car takes about 15 to 20 minutes to cross these 70-odd meters while their engines keep purring.
Maybe 500,000 vehicles pass on that road and burn fuel unnecessarily. So how many liters of fuel does it come to? Similarly, Jl. Pegangsaan Dua is choked, first because innumerable metro-minis are parked from it to the end of Jl. Raya Bekasi.
Probably about 100 metro-minis are parked on this road. The presence of warung and vehicles loaded with products from two-wheelers on that road add to the miseries of the car drivers.
This road also needs to be made wider, as it connects the harbor to the industrial part of East Jakarta. I also wonder why the so-called jalur lambat (slow lanes) on many arterial roads are more often used as bus depots than roads.
It is high time that, before we talk of more extensive busways etc., we try to remove the warung that obstruct traffic, and the illegal and unnecessary parking of metro-minis on these busy roads! On many occasions it takes 30 minutes to cross the two kilometers of Pegangsaan Dua!
What a waste of fuel! When it comes to the busway system, either it should be scrapped or it should be loaded by all vehicles of public transport. The busway lanes are used much more sparsely than the remaining lanes on the major arterial roads.
K. B. KALE, Jakarta