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<b>Jakarta.</b>  With more and more vehicles taking to the city’s roads but road infrastructure remaining limited, the authorities are now considering options to help reduce private vehicle use, Governor Fauzi Bowo said on Monday.

He told a plenary meeting of the city council that aside from prioritizing the development of an efficient public transportation system, the city would also need to limit the use of private vehicles to alleviate crippling traffic problems in certain areas and at certain times.

“There should be limitation on the number of vehicles, but limiting ownership is outside of the authority of the regional administration,” Fauzi said. “The authority we have is to limit their use, so therefore that is what we’ll do.”

According to the city, 89,317 new cars were registered for the first half of the year, a considerable jump on 68,606 cars in the first half of last year. Motorcycle registrations also increased by more than 20 percent from 211,365 units to 257,681.

Fauzi said the city administration was currently considering restrictions for both cars and motorcycles entering specific, congestion-prone areas, and that other options were also on the cards.

“Our studies are currently in their final stages, and one of the options being considered is ERP [electronic road pricing],” the governor said.

Under the ERP scheme, drivers would have to pay — using an automatic system — to use certain roads.

Fauzi said some areas would also be strictly off limits to motorcycles at certain times. “The growth of motorcycles is now at almost 900 a day, and this is really worrying,” he said. “Therefore there is a need to close certain areas — at certain times — to motorcycles.”

Fauzi also said the high number of new vehicles had also caused a shift in the city’s revenue streams, from vehicle tax to registration fees.

“Revenue from vehicle tax from the first half increased by 17.17 percent, or Rp 23 billion [$2.6 million], compared to last year’s revenue of Rp 1.34 trillion, while revenue from registration fees jumped 78.77 percent, from Rp 1.13 trillion to Rp 2.02 trillion,” the governor said.

City authorities are at the same time developing a large-scale public transportation system based on trains and rapid transit buses. “We should push for these; we should fund them and build them in phases,” Fauzi said.

Replying to questions from the media, Fauzi conceded that a Mass Rapid Transit rail system project has so far only received funding to link Lebak Bulus to Al Azhar, both in South Jakarta.

He added that negotiations were still under way to get further financing from the Japan International Cooperation Agency to extend the MRT line to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta.

The proposed system will combine subterranean, ground-level and elevated tracks, and aims to eventually link Lebak Bulus with Kampung Bandan in North Jakarta.

“There is already a funding commitment, but it is true, we have not yet talked about precise costs,” he said.