TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The plan mulled by Bogor City Government to impose a day to be free from B-license plate cars (Jakarta cars) is very unfitting because the ban is not based on mature consideration and could even backfire.

The plan was first proposed by Bogor Deputy Mayor Usmar Hariman and it was based on a very shallow argument: Hariman was furious to see traffic jams in the city.

His frustration grew during the weekend when many vehicles from Jakarta crowded the city, which becomes the main destination for those who come from surrounding cities such as Jakarta, Bekasi, or Tangerang.

Then he came up with a controversial idea: to ban other cities’ cars from entering Bogor.

The ban immediately sparked protests.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama directly planned to meet Bogor Mayor Bima Arya. Bekasi Mayor also regretted the plan. However, the loudest protests came from Bogor residents and businessmen.

Bogor Branch of the Indonesian Association of Hotels and Restaurants expressed their concern that the plan would slowly kill tourism industries in the city. Responding to that, Bima Arya himself denied the idea.

Previously, Bandung city government has also mulled the same plan. The local government is upset because every weekend, the city is always packed with cars from Jakarta. Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil Bandung Mayor also had a meeting with the Jakarta Deputy Governor to seek a solution.

In fact, both Bogor and Bandung City Government should explore the issue of congestion with more clarity. The sources of congestion in the two cities are certainly different.

In Bogor, the main cause of congestion is the number of public transportation minivans (public minivans) that continues to swell. It is no wonder that Bogor is often dubbed as "the city of a million public minivans".

Bogor has 3,412 public minivans, as well as 4,000 other means of public transportations. This amount of public minivans is in contrast to the size of the city, which is only a quarter of Jakarta.

Traffic congestion is also compounded by the fact that many Bogor residents have vehicles with ‘B’ license plate (Jakarta license plate) because most of them have jobs in Jakarta. Many newcomers who came to live in Bogor also came from Jakarta. This traffic complexity is the result of the delay made by the local government in building mass public transportation system.

Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi are also having this similar problem.

Every year, the local government only think about adding the number of public transportation minivans. There has been no serious efforts to build a mass public transport system such as providing feeder buses to the train station or providing buses to Jakarta.

They should have followed steps taken by Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini. Risma worked with PT Kereta Api Indonesia to build trams in Surabaya.

Remarkably, the 17-kilometer project is not funded by the Regional Budget, but by state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero). Bandung followed Surabaya’s plan by building a monorail system.

The solution to overcome traffic congestion is quite obvious indeed.

Local governments must not just blame cars from outside the city as a source of congestion. Rather, they also have to build a mass public transportation system that reaches all corners of the city, instead of just increasing the number of public transportations or taxis.

If this is not done, those cities will have to deal with more chronic traffic congestion.

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