You Will Get Ticket and Penalty For Parking On Side Of the road but Not If You Park on Pavement

It is true. The title of the article is 100% correct and many people witness such habit in Jakarta, the Capital of Indonesia everyday. The above photo is what you will see if you visit the Big Durian, Jakarta's nickname.

To minimize traffic jam in Jakarta, the government has taken firmer action to anyone who parks their cars on side of the road, especially on the no parking streets. It has been concluded that Indonesians' bad habit to carelessly park their cars on road side as one of the cause that creates jam on many streets.

Therefore, they instruct the Road Traffic Bureau to tow any cars found parked on roadside. As an implementation, some teams consist of several towing vehicla patrols all streets in Jakarta. Even only 5-10 minutes, with or without its driver inside, the towing car will tow the car to specific location where the owner , or the driver of the car can redeem their vehicle after paying some amount as fine.

The fine is 500,000 rupiahs ( more or less US$ 38) which is quite expensive for Indonesian.

Many cars have been towed since the rules applied.

However, there is one thing that is quite ironic. The officers will immediately apply the sanction to any cars on roadside, but they never punish any cars parked on pavement. It is not clear what is the reason for their neglecting anyone who parks on pavement because Indonesia's laws clearly mention that pavement is a place for pedestrians and anyone who breaks the rule will get punished.

Knowing this, many drivers take a chance to avoid from being towed. If they see the towing car team approaching, they will immediately move their cars and vehicle to the nearest empty pavement and they will be safe from being ticketed.

This has caused problems for many pedestrians as the cars block their passage.

 Until when this happen is still unanswered. Probably, only after the government or the officers realize that there is a law breaking by parking on pavement and do the same like they do on roadside parked cars, the problem will still exist.


I am not trying to teach you a bad habit here. In fact, you will always be expected to obey the rule and never park your cars on pavement.This is just to show you an irony that happen daily in Indonesia.