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KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

Passengers on the Gunung Dempo motor boat with an early departure from Jayapura disembark at Tanjung Perak Port, Surabaya City, East Java, Friday (29/4/2022).

Millions of homeward-bound travelers have arrived at their respective hometowns using various modes of transportation. However, traffic management on toll roads is still on standby to anticipate traffic congestion.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The flow of homeward journey in the last few days has brought millions of travelers to their hometowns. However, traffic management on toll roads is still on standby on Saturday (30/4/2022) to anticipate traffic congestion as there are people who will make the journey today.

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Based on data from the Transportation Ministry, on D-7 to D-4 Lebaran (Idul Fitri) or 25-28 April, the number of people who traveled on all modes of public transportation amounted to 2.58 million people. This number is still smaller, around 43.3 percent, than the cumulative passenger number in the same period of 2019, which amounted to 4.55 million passengers.

"However, this year's cumulative data is still ongoing and will continue to increase," said Transportation Ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati on Friday (29/4).

Meanwhile, state-owned PT Jasa Marga noted that 1.16 million vehicles had left the Greater Jakarta (Jabodetabek) area on D-10 to D-4 Lebaran or 22-28 April. This figure is the accumulation of traffic flow from four tollgates (GT), namely GT Cikupa (to Merak), GT Ciawi (to Puncak) and GT Cikampek Utama and GT Kalihurip Utama (to trans-Java and Bandung).

KOMPAS/ABDULLAH FIKRI ASHRI

Vehicles pass at the Palimanan Toll Gate, Cirebon Regency, West Java, Tuesday (26/4/2022).

Jasa Marga's Corporate Communication and Community Development Group head, Dwimawan Heru, said, based on Jasa Marga's calculations, the peak of homeward-bound vehicles passing through GT Cikampek Utama to the east or the trans-Java toll road was expected to have occurred last Friday.

"We expect that Friday night was the peak of the homeward-bound traffic. Perhaps the homeward travelers started their journey after maghrib or after tarawih [Ramadan evening] prayers. So, they arrived at GT Cikampek Utama a bit late," said Heru.

Traffic management

National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo said on Friday afternoon at the GT Cikampek Utama that around 211,809 vehicles would leave Jabodetabek heading east or on the trans-Java toll road.

This means that there is still a large potential for vehicle movement on a number of toll roads. Therefore, the police are still planning to carry out traffic management on toll roads today (Saturday).

The one-way system, which was originally planned to end on Thursday at midnight, was later extended to Friday morning.

Previously, on Thursday (28/4) starting at 5:30 p.m., the police implemented a one-way traffic system from Kilometer 47 of the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road to Km 414 GT Kalikangkung, Semarang, Central Java. The one-way system, which was originally planned to end on Thursday at midnight, was later extended to Friday morning.

Listyo said that the extension of the one-way traffic system was made to prevent congestion due to the large number of vehicles traveling east or leaving Jakarta.

"Had the one-way traffic system extension not been made there would certainly have been massive traffic jams. Of course, people traveling from east to west [Jakarta] are still able to take advantage of non-toll routes," said Listyo.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo

In addition to traffic management, the efforts to reduce vehicle density are also being carried out through the mudik gratis (free homeward travel on buses) program. On Friday, the National Police organized the mudik gratis program by witnessing the departure of more than 200 buses, which were boarded by thousands of people.

The mudik gratis, he continued, was organized to help low-income people visit their hometowns. This program can also reduce the road load from private cars, which is estimated to increase during this year's Idul Fitri mass exodus, considering that people were not allowed to mudik in the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Density

The head of the National Police Traffic Corps, Insp. Gen. Firman Shantyabudi, confirmed that during the implementation of the one-way traffic system on the toll roads on Thursday-Friday, there had been congestion on the non-toll (artery) routes and at a number of tollgates (heading to Jakarta). This was partly because some road users chose to wait at the tollgate because the one-way traffic system was scheduled to finish on Thursday at midnight.

As of Friday evening, a 5-km line of vehicles heading to Jakarta was monitored from Mundu to the Kalijaga T-junction, Cirebon city.

Based on Kompas monitoring, the density due to the one-way traffic system, among other factors, occurred on the northern coast of Cirebon, West Java, in the direction of Jakarta. As of Friday evening, a 5-km line of vehicles heading to Jakarta was monitored from Mundu to the Kalijaga T-junction, Cirebon city.

The accumulation of vehicles also occurred at around KM 70 of the Cipularang toll road. Dheamyra Aysha Ihsanti (21), one of the drivers, said that a number of motorists heading for Jakarta who were stuck around KM 70 of the Cipularang Toll Road had blocked the route to Bandung on Friday morning.

“For five hours the cars didn't move. Motorists couldn't have sahur [predawn meal], couldn't go to the toilet. In the end, many protested and blocked the road leading to Bandung for the officers to understand. They blocked it by placing a roadblock in the middle of the lane and everyone was standing there,” said Dhea when contacted on Friday afternoon. (NAD/JOL/TAM/GIO/IKI/OSA/ XTI/JUM/AIK/VIO/NCA/ WER/BRO/IDO)