0 Jakarta On-Street Parking Now by the Hour

The Jakarta administration is rolling out a program enforcing an hourly fee for on-street parking in the vicinity of markets, as part of a wider program to better regulate traffic flow. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the deputy governor, said on Friday that the program was already in place in Blok M, South Jakarta, and was set to be introduced to Pasar Baru in Central Jakarta within a month. “The idea is that if you park on the street, you have to pay the same as for off-street parking,” he said at City Hall following a meeting with officials from the Jakarta Transportation Office. 

Under the program, the city administration will set up a series of parking bays with concrete dividers along the shoulder of affected streets, with a gate for each bay that will be equipped with a timer. Under current practices, motorists parking on the street typically only pay a flat fee of between Rp 2,000 and Rp 3,000 (21 and 31 cents) regardless of how long they have parked. Basuki said that under a gubernatorial decree issued last year, the new system would see motorists pay up to Rp 4,000 per hour for parking on the street. 

The system is part of the administration’s wider program of encouraging commuters to use public transportation rather than cars, by making it more expensive to drive or park in the city. Another part of the program is the electronic road pricing scheme, which will charge motorists for using certain streets during rush hours. That scheme, however, is not expected to go into operation until late 2014 or early 2015. Basuki said that the on-street hourly parking enforcement program would be expanded to the streets around several markets throughout the city, where parked cars often take up two or three lanes of road space. 

“The next one will likely be Pasar Mayestik [in South Jakarta], and we’re still surveying other markets,” the deputy governor said as quoted by Detik.com. As part of the program, the city will also move to regulate parking attendants, including giving them a fixed wage. Most on-street parking attendants are employed on a target basis by private parking operators, in which they must pay a certain amount of their daily revenue to the operators and keep the remainder. 

The city’s parking overhaul also includes off-street parking facilities, where the hourly fee for cars was increased from the start of the month from Rp 3,000 to up to Rp 5,000. However, the increase drew widespread criticism from the public when it went into force, with motorists complaining that there had been no announcement or attempt by the city or parking operators to notify them about the change. Governor Joko Widodo, after re-evaluating the policy — which was put out by his predecessor — said the increase was reasonable given that it included a premium for insurance for any damage to or loss of motorists’ vehicles while parked. Previously, parking operators were not liable in such cases.

source : the jakarta globe