Jakarta Kicks the Tires of Parking Price Hike

Lenny Tristia Tambun

Jakarta plans to raise parking prices along congested roads as part of a hi-tech upgrade to the capital’s on-street parking.

Under the new regulation, congested roads in Central and South Jakarta would demand a higher fee than those with less traffic, Jakarta Transportation Office chief Udar Pristono said. The prices will be regulated by new handheld digital card scanners, Udar said.

“I hope that the on-street parking arrangement can involve the support of sophisticated equipment,” Udar said. “Regarding transactions, the best thing would be for both the parking attendants and the user of parking services not to deal in cash.”

The new readers are an attempt by the Transportation Authority to rein in the loosely regulated industry. Jakarta’s parking spaces are controlled by a motley crew of official uniformed parking attendants, unofficial, but still uniformed, workers, random community members and the so-called parking mafia.

It costs between Rp 2,000 and Rp 4,000 to park a car in Jakarta.

Udar said the card readers — common in Singapore and Malaysia — would standardize prices.

The new regulation, which was been passed by the Jakarta Legislative Council on Wednesday, is waiting on approval from the governor’s office.

“We want to come out with this gubernatorial regulation as soon as possible,” Udar said. “However, we ask on all sides to wait until this gubernatorial regulation is completed.”