Overview

As the nation’s capital city and the center for the Indonesian Government, Jakarta has become Indonesia’s focal point for the nation’s political, economic, cultural and intellectual activities. In addition to also being the center for offices of diplomatic envoys, Jakarta is also a benchmark for development of other cities in Indonesia. Despite its important role and rapid development, transportation infrastructure and an immense increase in the number of private vehicles has made Jakarta the most congested city in the ASEAN region.

In 2010 the number private vehicles in Jakarta reached 6.7 million with an average annual increase of 11%. In addition, on daily basis there are an estimated 600,000 private vehicles entering Jakarta from the surrounding cities during peak hours.[1] Data from the Traffic Directorate at the Jakarta Police Force shows that every day 138 new vehicle certificates (Surat Tanda Nomor Kendaraan) are issued, significantly below growth for new roads of 0.01% per annum.[2] This situation is made worse due to the unfriendly Jakarta public transport system, the vehicles for which only constitute 2% of all vehicles in Jakarta, including some that are not roadworthy.[3] As a result only 12.9% of commuters are willing to use public transport, while the majority prefers to use private vehicles.[4]