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As the Jakarta administration considers changing the much-maligned 3-in-1 traffic system, at least one expert said what was needed were improvements to the city’s public transportation system to get people out of their cars.

Under the 3-in-1 system, all cars entering specified main thoroughfares in the city are required to have at least three occupants between certain hours.

The 3-in-1 route runs from Jalan Sisingamangaraja in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, to Jalan Sudirman, Jalan Thamrin and Jalan Merdeka Barat in Central Jakarta, and Jalan Hayam Wuruk/Jalan Gadjah Mada in North Jakarta.

Administration official have discussed replacing the current 3-in-1 system with a road-pricing scheme.

Ellen Tangkudung, deputy chairwoman of the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI), said on Sunday that while the system’s aims were laudable, it had failed and needed replacing.

“It has proved ineffective in reducing traffic jams,” she said. “We now have ‘jockeys’ whose sole purpose is to catch a ride with drivers looking to circumvent the system, so why bother?”

Ellen said the administration needed to focus on improving public transportation and getting more commuters to use it.

“The busway is operational, and the city has the funds and policies in place to support it, so all it needs to do is improve it to attract more people,” she said.

Plans have also been discussed for a Mass Rapid Transit rail system that would run part of its route underground, though any such system is still years away.

However, Muhammad Akbar, head of traffic management at the Jakarta Transportation Agency, said that while the administration was considering phasing out the current 3-in-1 system, it was by no means a failure and had to some extent helped reduce traffic congestion in the city.

He conceded, though, that existing public transportation alternatives were not attractive to most commuters.

“We’re working on it,” he said. “We’re improving the busway and looking to get the MRT up and running,” he said.

Akbar said the road-pricing scheme being discussed at the Transportation Ministry could be viewed as a tax on commuters entering the current 3-in-1 roads.

“For lack of an alternative, the 3-in-1 system works very well,” Akbar said. “But we believe the road-pricing system will be even more effective.”

He was vague on when the scheme would likely be implemented, saying: “It’s still just a plan. We might implement it after public transportation in Jakarta has improved.”

He said a ballpark figure for the price per vehicle would be about Rp 20,000 ($2) during peak hours, and as with the 3-in-1 system, would only apply to key main thoroughfares.

Akbar said that if the road-pricing scheme did not see commuters making the shift to public transportation, the administration would keep raising the price.

“We’ll look at the average vehicle speeds on these roads and from there figure out how smoothly traffic is flowing,” he said. “If it’s still sluggish, we’ll raise the price until we get an optimal number of cars for the existing road space.”

The number of occupants per vehicle would not be an issue under this scheme, he added.

City councilor Muhammad Sanusi agreed that replacing the 3-in-1 with a road-pricing system was the city’s best option, as it could “really mitigate traffic congestion.”

“Expanding the roads is not viable because there’s limited space in Jakarta,” he said.