Joy of Orderly ‘Mudik’

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Homecomers packed the Kalideres Bus Terminal, West Jakarta, Sunday (18/6/2017).

This week will be a decisive week. An estimated 85.5 million people will embark on mudik (exodus) this year, a figure far exceeding the figure in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of mudik travelers has exploded.

The Transportation Ministry estimates that mudik will peak on 29-30 April 2022, three and two days before Idul Fitri. In anticipation of heavier mudik traffic occurring earlier, the Police’s traffic corps is planning to move up the implementation of the one-way and odd-even traffic policies on the Trans-Java Toll Road from Thursday, 28 April, to Monday, 25 April.

Managing mudik is a task that is both easy and difficult. It is easy because mudik is an annual tradition and can be prepared for well in advance, even years earlier, for medium- or long-term improvements.

Each person also has a different character and their own way of doing things.

But it is also difficult because it involves the mass movement of people and goods at almost the same time. Managing people is certainly more difficult than managing robots or goods, because people have unlimited needs and wants. Each person also has a different character and their own way of doing things.

Also read:

> Odd-Even Traffic Policy Trial On Toll Road Starts Today

> Odd-Even, One-Way Traffic Starts April 28

However, the pattern stays the same. “Every Idul Fitri, Jakarta’s population decreases a lot,” reported Kompas on 10 Dec. 1969. The phenomenon is still seen today. The only difference today is that the number of mudik travelers is many times larger and the problems are more complex. Over 60 years ago, only 53,500 Jakarta residents left each day for their hometowns during mudik.

Mudik has become more complex in the last two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It will be easier this year because the global pandemic has improved drastically to where only 548,000 cases are reported each day. Earlier in January 2022, total global cases reached 3.8 million per day. In Indonesia, around 64,000 cases per day were reported in February 2022.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO (WAK)

Homecomers arrive at Pondok Pinang shadow terminal, South Jakarta, to hunt for buses that can take them to their hometowns, Sunday (25/4/2021).

These circumstances have prompted the government to ease its public mobility and activities restrictions during this year’s mudik, with several conditions. Because SARS-CoV-2 has prevented us from going on mudik in the last two years, managing the explosion of joy over mudik while preventing another wave of Covid-19 cases remains a challenge in organizing mudik2022.

Organizers need to be creative in offering “candy” to the public, other than disciplining those who are recalcitrant, so that mudik travel passes in the best way possible. China, for example, prevented 260 million people from traveling for Chinese New Year 2021 by distributing lucrative angpao (red envelopes, traditionally containing money) or free healthcare to migrant workers who did not return to their hometowns.

We need to continue to stress the importance of discipline among all travelers. The limited number of traffic officers and the limited technology used to manage public mobility requires everyone’s awareness to always look after and remind each other. We hope that the mudik 2022 explosion will be an explosion of joy, not an explosion of of anger due to traffic jams, and certainly not an explosion of Covid-19 cases.

(This article was translated by Kesya Adhalia)