In total, there are seven measures prepared for a number of areas to ease the traffic on arterial and toll roads.
According to Tomex, the peak of the return flow traffic is predicted for Friday and Saturday. On those two days, trucks will have started to operate again and homecoming travelers will want to return to Jakarta quickly, because they start work again on Monday.
Therefore, the first measure by the police would be to direct trucks off toll roads and onto arterial roads, should the Cipali and Purbaleunyi toll roads be affected by heavy traffic on the Cikampek-Jakarta toll road. Large trucks driving at low speed will make traffic worse.
“From the Palimanan-Kanci toll road, the trucks will be directed to exit through the toll gate at Kilometer 214 Kanci and at Km 288 Tegal Parang, all the way to Kertajati. The same measure will be taken at Purbaleunyi toll road. If the traffic jam is severe, trucks will be made to exit starting from Km 116 Cikamuning to Km 66-61,” Tomex said.
If this move causes the arterial roads to suffer from severe congestion, police will carry out the next measure, which is stopping all trucks at truck bases and big restaurants. Trucks will not be allowed to stop at the roadside, because that would clog up traffic.
The next measure is to close rest areas that are 90 percent full. Not only will the rest areas be closed, but cars will also be prohibited from queuing at the entrances of rest areas and from parking at the side of toll roads.
Police will ensure that there are no queues of vehicles at entrances of rest areas. Also, rest area security staff and police will urge visitors to quickly leave once they have finished using the rest area for whatever purpose.
In the outbound flow last week, queues at rest areas was one of the main causes of traffic jams on toll roads. The authorities will try to address this problem in the return flow.
Police will also implement a contraflow system on congested toll and arterial roads. On toll roads, the contraflow system can be used to ease congestion around rest areas.
A contraflow is implemented by taking one lane from the opposing road. The system can be implemented on the Cikampek-Jakarta, Purbaleunyi, Cipali and Kanci-Palimanan toll roads.
It has been proven to help smoothen traffic and ease congestion in areas that are the cause of traffic jams. However, traffic will be congested again at the point where vehicles in the opposing direction return to the proper lane. Police personnel will be needed to manage the traffic at those meeting points of vehicles.
Contraflow traffic management can also be applied on arterial roads. On the Semarang-Kendal arterial road in Central Java, the system has already been used. Likewise, on the Pekalongan-Tegal northern coastal road, the contraflow system has been used a number of times to overcome traffic congestion.
If the contraflow system, the closing of rest areas and the diversion of trucks from toll roads have all been carried out but a toll road is still severely congested, police will close the toll road and direct all vehicles to use arterial roads. The closure will be maintained until congestion on the toll road starts to ease. After that, vehicles will be allowed to enter the toll road again.
During the last homecoming flow, the toll road was extremely full, but traffic on arterial roads was much smoother. Therefore, police will force vehicles to use the arterial roads, if necessary.
Meanwhile, to address the problem of congestion at toll gates, the toll road operator will add more toll booths to serve drivers. The Cipali toll road, which generally has six toll booths, will be given 12 additional booths.
Deputy General for Jakarta-Cikampek traffic management Cece Kosasih said that 21 booths would be added at the Cikarang Utama toll gate to make it 29 booths in total. The booth for e-toll will also accept cash transactions. On-field officials will be deployed to speed up the transaction process.
Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said that the emergency toll road would be used one-way from Gringsing to Brebes. The emergency road will be opened on Thursday (29/6) at 6 a.m. but only remain in use until 5 p.m. because of a lack of road lighting.
The emergency road could be used at night should police deem it necessary. However, that can only be done if the road is guarded by the police. Police will also restrict vehicles to a maximum speed of 40 km per hour.
“However, if it is at night, the vehicles will be guarded by the police. The police will also need to try it out first to ensure that the traffic will be smooth,” Budi said.
Heri Trisaputra Zuna, head of the Indonesian Toll Road Authority (BPJT), said some parts of the emergency roads form Gringsing to Pemalang, Pejagan to Pemalang and Pemalang to Batang had to be fixed, because the surface had peeled off. The surface was fixed using concrete and asphalt. On Wednesday (28/6) at around 6 p.m., the work on it had been completed and the road can be used on Thursday morning for the return flow.
Return flow increasingly crowded
Many have heeded calls by the government and police for homecoming travelers to return to Jakarta before Friday. The return flow is starting to intensify, causing the Palimanan toll gate in West Java to be packed with cars.
As of 2 p.m. on Wednesday, there was a surge in the number of vehicles heading towards Jakarta. The number of vehicle increased by 79 percent from 8,647 on Tuesday to 15,501 on Wednesday, twice as many as on a normal day.
“The volume of vehicles on the Cipali toll road, particularly those heading towards Jakarta, is continuing to rise as of this afternoon. To maintain smooth traffic, we have opened 25 booths, 13 booths for the road heading towards Jakarta and 12 booths for the road heading towards Cirebon. The booth arrangement can be changed at any time according to conditions in the field,” said PT Lintas Marga Sedaya deputy president director Firdaus Azis.
On the Cikampek toll road towards Jakarta, there is also a traffic jam starting from Km 60. Traffic started to become congested in the afternoon due to the high number of vehicles. The speed of vehicles only ranges from 10 km per hour to 20 km per hour towards the Cikarang Utama toll gate.
(ESA/RAM/BKY/NSA/ECA/ARN/D12)
