Busy intersections in Jakarta often look like the start of a highly competitive race to nowhere, with many drivers forcefully pushing forward to get every centimeter of a head start they can for when the light turns greens. Usually this means crossing through the stop lines or yellow box junctions meant to keep vehicles out of the way of crossing pedestrians and perpendicular traffic.
Frankly we were almost surprised to hear that this was an actual traffic violation, since drivers here seem to do it reflexively. But drivers can actually be fined Rp 500,000 for crossing the intersection lines – which is what happened to a few thousand Jakarta drivers over the past week.
The Jakarta Traffic Police held one of their intermittent operations to get drivers to follow the rules of the road recently, this one focused on keeping them behind the lines at intersections. The operation was appropriately dubbed “Operation Enforcement of Stop Line Traffic Violations”.
Started on April 19, police say the operation netted 1,087 violators by April 21 and 4,477 by April 27. Monitoring was done in Pancoran, Daan Mogot and Simpang Lima Senen.
“The offenders were charged directly with violating Article 287 paragraph 1 of the criminal code, which is punishable by up to two months in jail or a fine of Rp 500,000,” Jakarta Traffic Police Superintendent Budiyanto told Otomania.
It’s a decent start and we hope it raises some awareness, but our guess is that any reduction in stop line violations will be erased within a week of the operation stopping. The police cannot only crackdown on these kinds of traffic violations once in awhile during special operations – they need to consistently and aggressively ticket offenders all year round if they hope to ever actually change driving behavior here in Jakarta.
