Future ‘Mudik’ Traffic Management Could Be More Comprehensive

Traffic management for mudik travel and mudik return travel during Lebaran this year has been deemed an improvement. However, the government is also encouraged to manage future mudik traffic more comprehensively.

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Kertajaya (Surabaya-Jakarta) train passengers arrive at Pasar Senen Station, Central Jakarta, Sunday (8/5/2022).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — This year's Lebaran was marked with high enthusiasm as people traveled to their hometowns. In fact, the number of mudik travelers using private vehicles on toll roads this year exceeded the figure in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic emerged.

Even so, the management of outbound and return mudik traffic this year has been deemed an improvement due to added infrastructure, the use of the latest traffic monitoring technology, and stakeholders’ close coordination.

However, several parties have also highlighted that future management of outbound and return mudik traffic during Idul Fitri needs to be more comprehensive. In addition to managing traffic and transportation, the government also needs to set extend the Idul Fitri collective leave in order reduce traffic jams stemming from mudik travel on particular days.

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said that an evaluation of the arus balik period had shown that traffic management operations had reduced travel time. He said that without the traffic operations, traveling from Semarang to Jakarta would have taken 11 hours and 37 minutes.

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However, the journey was reduced to 6 hours and 31 minutes as a result of the one-way and counterflow traffic policies, as well as restrictions on large trucks and tri-axle vehicles.

Corporate communications and community development head Dwimawan Heru of state-owned toll road operator PT Jasa Marga said that on D+4 Lebaran, or the fourth day after Lebaran (7/5/2022), a record-breaking number of vehicles passed on toll roads for arus balik.

On that day, as many as 170,078 vehicles returned to Greater Jakarta (Jabodetabek) from cities in the east, such as Surabaya, Surakarta, Semarang, Cirebon and Bandung.

"This figure is a 159 percent increase from normal conditions in 2021, and beats the highest pre-pandemic record that occurred during Idul Fitri 2019 of 166,444 vehicles by 2.2 percent," Heru said on Sunday (8/5).

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Thousands of motorbikes for travelers who will return to Jakarta and its surroundings are crowded while passing the northern coast lane in the Klari area, Karawang, West Java, Sunday (8/5/2022).-2022

Although the number of vehicles passing on the Jakarta-Cikampek Toll Road this year was higher, Heru said the traffic was more manageable. "In 2019, it took up to 24 hours to manage traffic of this magnitude and to resolve congestions that occurred along various segments of the Jakarta-Cikampek Toll Road," he said.

Contributing factors

According to Heru, several factors had contributed to the improved traffic management during outbound and return mudik travel this year. First was the existence of the 38-kilometer Mohamed Bin Zayed (MBZ) Elevated Toll Road, which increased the capacity of the Jakarta-Cikampek Toll Road.

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Second was using traffic management technology via the Jasa Marga Toll Road Command Center (JMTC). The JMTC compiled information on toll road traffic from a variety of sources, comprising 1,913 security cameras (CCTV), 26 speed cameras, 39 CCTV-based traffic volume analysis, 19 remote traffic microwave sensors (RTMS), 7 weigh-in-motion devices (records vehicle and axle weight), as well as information from field operation officers and motorists.

Using these various tools and means, the JMTC was able to analyze toll road traffic and congestion so the police and relevant parties could determine their traffic engineering strategies, for example the one-way and counterflow systems.

Heru said that another contributing factor was intense cross-sectoral coordination that involved the National Police, the Transportation Ministry, the Public Works and Housing Ministry, the Toll Road Regulatory Agency and local administrations, as well as other agencies.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Traffic density on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, ahead of the Km 62 rest area, Karawang, West Java, Sunday (8/5/2022). The return flow of vehicles from the east to Jakarta during the Idul Fitri holiday reached its peak density on Saturday and Sunday.

Holiday

Advocacy and community head Djoko Setijowarno of the Indonesian Transportation Society said that, to reduce congestion during outbound and return mudik travel, the government could stagger Lebaran leave for government and private employees so they did not start and end on the same day.

It was hoped that arranging leave this way would prevent congestion of mudik travelers on particular days. “Public institutions and private companies should make it possible so their leave [doesn’t overlap]. That way, vehicle traffic during mudik won't accumulate too much," said Djoko.

Djoko also supported the government's policy of extending the school holiday in three provinces, and urged the implementation of a work from home (WFH) scheme. He said the extended school holiday and the WFH policy could be implemented during Lebaran in the future to reduce traffic density during outbound and return mudik travel.

Information about congestion must be directly available. That way, drivers can decide exactly when to use arterial roads.

Transportation observer Sony Sulaksono Wibowo from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) said that a real-time traffic information system needed to be used during future mudik travel. Using this system, motorists could be directed to switch to regular or arterial roads if the toll roads were jammed.

“Information about congestion must be directly available. That way, drivers can decide exactly when to use arterial roads,” he said.

Sony added that to reduce congestion for outbound and return mudik travel during the Idul Fitri holiday season, the government must also continue to encourage the use of public transportation, such as trains, planes, buses and ships. However, this effort needed to be accompanied by public transportation readiness in destination cities. This was one of the reasons why travelers used private vehicles to facilitate their mobility while in their hometowns.

“We must immediately think about maximizing modes of mass transportation. This is vital to reducing congestion," he said. (NAD/TAM/JOL/GIO/BRO/RTG)

This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswo.