The Jakarta Transportation Agency yesterday revealed the number of reported traffic violations committed in the capital from January 1 to July 21, and it stood at a whooping 119,430 cases.
The agency’s head, Andri Yansyah, said many of the violators parked their vehicles illegally, most notorious of which were public transport drivers who like to ‘ngetem’ (stop in the middle of the road to pick up/drop off passengers).
“They took away other people’s rights to use the roads,” Andri said, as quoted by Tempo yesterday.
Out of all of the violations this year, 11,374 motorists were fined Rp 5.92 billion in total.
While 119,430 traffic violations sounds like an insanely excessive number, it only amounts to 588 violations each day. That seems small in relation to the number of vehicles in Jakarta (6.5 million according to a study done in 2015) and considering the ubiquitous negligent driving we can see everyday in the capital.
That is because, according to Andri, the violators were caught at traffic checkpoints or as part of occasional large-scale traffic discipline operations. One can only wonder how much larger the number actually is if the authorities do more to actively enforce traffic laws in the capital.
