Blok M - Kota bus lane<\/p>\n
Traffic jams are already getting worse as the city gears up
\nfor the Blok M to Kota Busway. Many, perhaps most, car users
\nexpect (some even hope) that this bold move to improve mobility
\nin Indonesia's frenetic capital city will end in failure.<\/p>\n
But think in a broader context than today's traffic jams used
\nas an excuse for being forty minutes late for that important
\nmeeting. We will not be alone in doing so. Governor Sutiyoso
\nand his officials are already hedging their bets with
\npreparations for more three-in-one regulation and banned
\nnumberplate days.<\/p>\n
Given today's transparency we know from the media that the
\nplan is to open a one-way-each-way busway for exclusive use by 56
\nnew buses. Each bus will have a capacity of 85 passengers with 55
\nstanding, along the 12.9 kilometer 20 stop corridor. The city
\ngovernment expects that the number of private cars used on the
\nroute will be reduced by 30 percent (The Jakarta Post, Dec. 18).<\/p>\n
Fair enough, give up a third of the mixed use roadway to
\nexclusive bus use and expect about a third less vehicles on the
\ncorridor. But will road users behave as the authorities would
\nlike?<\/p>\n
Present users of public transport may well benefit from and
\nuse the busway if the price is not too high. Car users will
\nmostly resist shifting to low status and comfort bus travel.
\nWill there be enough who are willing to give up \"home to office
\nand back\" travel in favor of \"get to the bus station, ride in air
\nconditioned comfort down the busway and get from the bus station
\nto final destination\", and the same on the way home?<\/p>\n
For sure, some spouses will be delighted to deliver their
\nbetter halves to the busway and pick them up again at the
\nordained hour in exchange for unrestricted use of car and driver
\nfor the rest of the day and improved control over the time their
\nspouses get home from the office. Others with less accommodating
\nspouses may curse the lack of parking facilities at the gathering
\npoints.<\/p>\n
If not enough car travelers avail themselves of this new
\nmobility, will the rage of vehicle owners over traffic jams and
\nmore rigorous three-in-one rules plus banned car number days boil
\nover into abandonment of the initiative before enough time has
\nelapsed to shift car users in favor of the new travel
\nalternative?<\/p>\n
First, traffic jams have been a feature of Jakarta life at
\nleast as long as the New Order gave a lift to economic growth
\nback in the seventies. Car ownership has increased many times
\nsince Governor Ali Sadikin took traffic jams management into his
\nown hands at that time. And many investments in road capacity
\nhave been made including tollways, overpasses and roadway
\nimprovements in response to growing demand for passenger car
\ntransport. How well do the city authorities understand this
\nprocess of change in land use under the pressure of traffic jams
\nand higher door-to-door costs?<\/p>\n
Second, to what extent will the dramatic improvement in
\ntelecommunications now taking place, combined with the clustering
\nof communities around urban commercial centers, induce change in
\ntravel demand that will make super-high density traffic corridors
\na relic of the past?<\/p>\n
PETER DUNCAN
\nCisarua, West Java<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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