Monday 20 December 2010

Indonesia aiming for more electronic toll takeup

The Jakarta Post reports that Indonesian toll road company, PT Jasa Marga Tbk, is aiming for a major increase in electronic tolling takeup in the next two years.  Current takeup is only 6%, with the goal being to increase this to 30% by 2012.   This will partly be achieved by installing electronic tolling equipment at all toll gates.

The toll prices at present are complex, partly because Jasa Marga is responsible for 13 individual toll roads, with the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (only partly Jasa Marga responsible) already having 83 toll gates.

Prices range from 2500 Rupiah (US$0.28) to 5000 Rupiah (US$0.56) for cars, with prices ranging up to 4000 Rupiah (US$0.44) to 14000 Rupiah (US$1.55) for the heaviest vehicles.   The high number of tolling points means the tolls are more closely aligned to a form of blunt distance charging, a little like the nationwide DSRC based toll system on motorways in Austria. 

However, it does not appear that Jasa Marga is incentivising electronic tolling for anything other than user convenience and reduced congestion at busy toll booths.   Given the saving in labour, it would be appropriate to have a distinction between electronic accounts and manual tolls.   

More importantly, if I was thinking about reducing congestion in Jakarta, incentivising fully electronic free flow traffic on toll roads would be a higher priority than congestion charging.

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