緩解堵車有高招 雅加達交警輪滑指揮交通

There's the canine unit and the equine unit and now police in car-congested Jakarta, where gridlock is legendary, have set up a new force to combat traffic jams -- the in-line skate unit.

With a run-down public transportation system and some 14 million residents, Jakarta is known to be one of the Most difficult cities in Asia to navigate, even for the traffic police who is often stymied by the congestion.

But the 20 officers who have spent the past four weeks weaving through the streets on their skates don't have to worry about gridlock any more.

"We park our vehicles as close as we can to the traffic jams. Then we go into the jam area on rollerblades to direct the traffic," said Commander Sutirto who heads the special squad.

Decked out in helmets, knee and elbow pads, the skating police received a month of intensive training. Many officers said their biggest challenge was staying upright on the city's bumpy and sometimes pock-marked roads.

Some motorists welcomed the rollerblading officers as a time-saving solution, but others said the police needed to crack down on the bad driving that causes the jams rather than just resolve them.

"Motorists must be disciplined. They must not cross into other people's lanes," said motorist Eko Juli.

Getting around sprawling Jakarta and suburbs is a time-consuming and often arduous feat.

Traffic crawls along at a frustrating snail's pace during rush hours and is often chaotic due to the rising number of vehicles and frequent flooding.

Jakarta's governor has promised to tackle the traffic problem by building more busways, a monorail and a subway. But a remedy is unlikely any time soon as it will cost billions of dollars and take several years to complete.

我們聽說過警犬隊和騎警隊，而如今在以堵車而聞名的雅加達，交警部門新組建了一支“輪滑交警小分隊”來對付交通擁堵問題。

擁有1400萬居民的（印尼首都）雅加達公共交通系統落後陳舊，是亞洲交通狀況最惡劣的城市之一，甚至連執勤的交警也常常被困在路上。

但在過去四個星期中，穿着旱冰鞋穿梭於各條街道執勤的20名交警不再擔心被堵在路上了。

這支特別小分隊的負責人蘇特託警官說：“我們儘量把車停在離交通擁堵最近的路段，然後穿着旱冰鞋溜到擁堵的地方去指揮交通。”

輪滑交警分隊的成員全副武裝，戴着頭盔、護膝和護肘，他們在上崗前接受了一個月的集訓。很多警察稱，穿着冰鞋在該市崎嶇不平、有時還坑坑窪窪的路面上站穩是他們面臨的最大挑戰。

一些駕車者對“輪滑交警”表示歡迎，並認爲這是一項省時的舉措，但另有一些人認爲交警的職責不僅是疏解交通，還應該打擊那些引發交通擁堵的違規駕駛行爲。

駕車者伊柯•朱力說：“所有的駕車者都應該遵守交通規則，不可隨意串並車道。”

雅加達及其周邊郊區擴展得雜亂無章，出行是一件費時又費力的事。

在交通高峯期，車流緩慢行進，慢得像只蝸牛，令人厭煩；由於機動車數量的不斷增加以及頻繁的洪水災害，雅加達當地的交通經常是混亂不堪。

雅加達市市長已承諾要多修一些專用車道以及一條單軌和地鐵線以解決當地的交通問題。不過任何一項措施都不可能在短時間內奏效，因爲修建這些設施需花費幾十億美元，而且需要好幾年的時間才能完成。