Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – Motorists will continue to be frustrated on Jakarta's streets this year, with more vehicles to be sold but no new roads to be built, a discussion concluded Tuesday.

"Traffic jams in Jakarta will definitely be worse this year compared to last year," Tri Tjahjono from the Transportation Study Center at the University of Indonesia said during the discussion, which was organized by the Indonesian Transportation Society.

"We are not aware of any government plans to expand roads, while the number of vehicles sold in the capital increases every year," he said.

However, Tjahjono said he did not support road expansion plans as they offered "no sustainable solution" to the city's traffic chaos. He said one way to overcome traffic jams would be to improve the busway system.

"That is the only mass transportation system affordable and suitable enough for the administration in accordance with local and national regulations. And the administration needs to continue improving the system," he said.

He said a railway-based transportation system may also be an option in the future, but said more work was needed on the 2007 law on train services.

He suggested the administration develop a regulatory body to manage all road-based public transportation services in the capital, much like the body established to supervise state owned-toll road operator Jasa Marga.

On average, 269 cars and 1,235 motorcycles are sold each day in the capital, with vehicle numbers rising by 10 percent on average each year.

Jakarta's roadways – now equal to 40 square kilometers and expanding by no more than 0.1 percent every year – can accommodate only 0.01 percent of the total number of cars in the city at any one time, Jakarta Public Works Agency head Wisnu Subagya Yusuf said.

Tjahjono said the only benefit to come out of worsening traffic jams was that there would be fewer road fatalities in the city. "Traffic jams force motorists to lower their speed," he said.

However, Hero Sutomo, the director of the Center for Transportation and Logistics Studies at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, said there would be more fatalities involving motorcyclists in Jakarta this year. "The number of motorcyclist fatalities in Jakarta is expected to rise by 10 percent," he said.

Jakarta saw 508 deaths from 4,466 accidents in 2007, higher than the 290 deaths and 3,098 accidents recorded in 2006, according to Jakarta Police statistics.

"Actually, if drivers lower their speed by 10 kilometers per hour it can reduce their risk of having an accident by 20 to 25 percent," Heru said.