Anticipating Vehicle Volume Spike During Eid 2018 Homebound Season

The spike in vehicle volume during the homebound season is an annual tradition. For instance, it is predicted that the number of vehicles that will pass the Cikarang Utama Toll Gate this year will increase by 81%. Furthermore, the traffic volume during the 2018 homebound season might go up 0.03% compared to 2017. What are the anticipations?

The government is preparing various policies through related parties. Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi even said that one of his work focuses that he had prepared for a long time was the 2018 homebound season.

"The important strategic issue in 2018 is the availability of extra public transportation—land, sea, and air, and trains—to anticipate spike," the minister said to CNN Indonesia, Wednesday (January 31).

Meanwhile, PT Jasa Marga (Persero) has anticipated the spike in vehicle volume in toll roads, especially along the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road. This toll road is where traffic bottleneck is expected to happen due to various constructions underway. To anticipate this, Jasa Marga has prepared three main strategies.

"We will distribute traffic burden, optimize lane capacity, and accelerate handling of or minimizing problems along the road," Jasa Marga Operation Management VP Randy L. Lukman said to Kompas.com, Wednesday (April 11).

The scenario prepared is transferring the flow of cars to the nearest toll gate if the queue is too long. Randy also said that Jasa Marga has prepared 20 booths at the Cikarang Utama toll gate, a bigger number than last year’s 16.

Not only that, Jasa Marga also said that they would use mobile readers and card top-up machines at Cikarang Utama 2 and 4 toll gates. There will be 25 mobile readers on standby.

Mobile readers are portable toll card readers. An officer can bring a reader to cars queueing for the booth so that the drivers can tap their cards to the mobile reader to pay the fare. Toll payment will take less time because it won't be concentrated at the booths.

To ensure smooth flow of traffic along the toll roads, Jasa Marga will also ban trucks of classes III to V for 24 hours since H-3.

These various strategies are expected to keep drivers from spending too much time in traffic congestion. Vehicle volume will not pile up and journey time will be slashed.

The preparations are surely pleasant news for to-be-travelers planning to undergo homebound trips using personal vehicles. This is especially because private vehicles are still the main preference in the homebound season.

Homebound trip using private vehicles is still deemed more practical and flexible in terms of itinerary arrangement. That is why car sales are usually higher ahead of Eid al-Fitr than in other months.

To accommodate the spike in market demand, PT Serasi Autoraya (SERA), through its subsidiary IBID-Balai Lelang Serasi, offers cars to be purchased through auction.

Purchasing cars through auction can be a solution that fits people's budget. This is because IBID offers a wide variety of cars so there’s a high possibility for a person to find the exact car that will fit his or her needs.

This would surely help homebound travelers to journey using their own vehicles and enjoy more comfortable homebound trips this year.