The month-long test period of the odd-even traffic rule began last Wednesday and early reviews of the new policy have mostly been positive. The deputy head of Jakarta’s Transportation Department, Sigit Widjatmoko, said yesterday that early data showed the new rule had already reduced traffic about as much as the previous 3-in-1 policy did (even though violators of the odd-even aren’t even being ticketed yet, just reprimanded).
Most critics of the odd-even predicted the new rule would be ineffective due to the ease with which fake license plates can be purchased here. But police said they would have plenty of checkpoints throughout the odd-even roads to check license plates and that they had already trained their officers to spot fake licenses.
Well, we now have proof that the police have caught at least one car sporting fake plates, and we do mean fake plates as in plural.
“08:44am Traffic Policewomen catches a fake license plate being used to avoid the odd-even.”
The head of communications for the Transportation Department, Intan Berlian, told BeritaJakarta that the Toyota Land Cruiser was originally pulled over because it was using the B 1541 SJO license plate, making it in violation of the odd-even policy since today, August 2, is an even calendar date (meaning the driver apparently couldn’t even be bothered to switch to the correct fake license plate).
“When [police] checked the license plate they saw an incongruity. When we tried to lift it, it turned out there were two other license plates attached to it in a stack,” Intan said.
According to Intan, the driver claimed the vehicle was an official car and that the other two plates belong to other official vehicles belonging to their institution.
Both the car and driver are currently in the custody of the traffic police. It is not yet clear what charges they may face, but Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama once said that he wanted to publicize name and shame people who tried to use fake plates as a deterrent for others.
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