Jakarta starts odd-even scheme for motorcycles with PhP1,760 fine

Traffic scheme hoped to reduce volume

With a large number of our motorcycles assambled in Indonesia, it should come as no surprise that the country has the densest motorcycle traffic in the world. There are about 107-million motorcycles in Indonesia, overtaking India as the world’s largest motorcycle market in 2020. Its capital alone, Jakarta, counted more than 16-million motorcycles registered in 2018. 

By comparison, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) says the total number of motorcycles registered in the entire Philippines as of March 2019 is at 19-million.

With a whole country's worth of motorcycles plying the capital city alone, Jakarta has begun to implement an odd-even vehicular volume control scheme.

The odd-even scheme is fairly simple. Ddepending on the last digit of a motorcycle’s number plate, a citizen cannot ride it on certain days. For example, if your motorcycle’s number plate ends in 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 (odd numbers) – that means they cannot ride or use it during Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. For those with number plates that end in 2, 4, 6, 8 and 0 (even numbers), they cannot ride or use their motorcycle during Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Jakarta authorities will begin issuing traffic violation tickets to motorcycle riders who violate the odd-even scheme starting today, September 8, 2021. Under the odd-even policy, violators will be fined IDR 500,000, or about PHP 1,760.

According to some riders in Jakarta, the IDR 500,000 fine is enough to cover for the down payment of a 125cc scooter in most motorcycle dealerships in the area.

With the number of motorcycles steadily growing here in the PH, do you think it is time to apply a similar coding scheme for motorcycles?