Busway a flawed policy?<\/p>\n
While some other countries adopt the paradigm that
\ntransportation is a human right, Indonesia has yet to find the
\nbest formula to provide its citizens with humane transportation,
\nespecially ground transportation in the big cities.<\/p>\n
This inability to provide appropriate ground transportation is
\nclearly observable in the streets of Jakarta, the capital of the
\nrepublic. Day-to-day traffic congestion and never-ending traffic
\nviolations have obviously caused the administration, including
\nthe law enforcers, to become frustrated.<\/p>\n
The fruits of their frustration are -- among other things --
\ntotal ignorance of the city's day-to-day traffic woes and
\ninappropriate moves, such as the decision to adopt a busway
\nsystem, which is adapted from Bogota, Colombia.<\/p>\n
The idea to establish the busway system results from a
\nbeautiful dream to cure Jakarta of its traffic headaches.
\nUnfortunately, the realization of the idea started with
\ncontroversy. Many trees have been felled to make way for the
\nbusway lanes and stations.<\/p>\n
As a result the traffic flow between Blok M (South Jakarta)
\nand Kota (downtown) have been growing much more hectic than
\nbefore as about one-third of the roads along the route are being
\nturned into special lanes for the new buses. Already, the lane's
\nconcrete separators have caused accidents.<\/p>\n
True, every citizen plays a part in causing the traffic chaos,
\nbut it is the provincial administration led by the governor that
\nis the most responsible for delineate policies to put things in
\norder.<\/p>\n
Considering that the roads have become even more chaotic after
\npart of them have been taken for the new bus lanes, Jakarta's
\ncitizens are justifiably pessimistic that the busway will be able
\nto cure the city's traffic headaches.<\/p>\n
However, Governor Sutiyoso is very upbeat about the success of
\nthe busway system. All-out preparations have been made to
\nvalidate his persistence. A total of 149 buses plying the Blok M-
\nKota; Lebak Bulus-Kota and Ciputat-Kota routes have to give up
\ntheir operations for the sake of the busway scheme.<\/p>\n
The city will also extend and expand the three-in-one traffic
\npolicy, in which a car on the busway corridor must have at least
\nthree passengers from 6:30 to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., from
\nMonday to Friday. This plan has evoked protests from the public
\nwhom dub the move ridiculous.<\/p>\n
The busway policy is supposed to encourage people to use
\npublic transportation to and from their places of work. This,
\nhowever, sounds as if the governor is being too optimistic about
\nthe project's efficacy, as the administration seems to ignore the
\nfact that the preference of citizens to use private cars -- which
\nis one of the main causes of the chaos on the roads -- is
\ntriggered by the unsafe and uncomfortable public means of
\ntransportation.<\/p>\n
The worsening traffic flow that is caused by the initial work
\non the busway project is, according to Sutiyoso, understandable
\nas the busway is a new mode of transportation in Jakarta. \"That
\nalso happened in Bogota,\" he was quoted by reporters as saying.<\/p>\n
But while Sutiyoso -- and, of course, his superiors -- radiate
\noptimism, skepticism runs strong among the public, which believes
\nthat the busway is not the appropriate mode of transportation for
\nJakarta under its present circumstances.<\/p>\n
Many people are doubtful that the new buses operated under the
\nbusway system can reach their destination faster than regular
\nbuses operating under the old system.<\/p>\n
The habit of motorists and pedestrians, plus the condition of
\nthe city traffic circles in general, is likely to become a very
\nserious obstacle for the buses to reach their destination
\naccording to their schedules.<\/p>\n
It seems that any kind of mode of transportation won't work to
\ncurb the chaos of Jakarta's traffic, disorganized as it is by the
\nlack of discipline of thousands of motorists and pedestrians.<\/p>\n
The capital city indeed needs an integrated mode of
\ntransportation that takes into account the needs of residential
\nareas based on the city master plan. What we have now is a
\ndisrupted system. There is no clear link between the residential
\nmodes of transportation -- such as ojek bicycle taxies -- and
\nareas linked by other means of transportation such as mikrolet
\nminibuses and other areas with still larger modes of
\ntransportation.<\/p>\n
The mayoralties apparently focus their interest on only their
\nown areas of jurisdiction when issuing operation permits for
\ntransit vehicles. In addition, the city administration has failed
\nto cooperate with Jakarta's neighboring provinces of Banten and
\nWest Java when developing the ground transportation network.<\/p>\n
It is of course clear that what a teeming city like Jakarta
\nneeds is a means for safe and comfortable mass rapid transit
\n(MRT), which, unfortunately remains a dream.<\/p>\n
Many of Jakarta's citizens doubt that the busway can make a
\nsuccessful contribution to cure Jakarta of its traffic woes.
\nAfter all, one city administration official has conceded that the
\nbusway is not meant to function as an MRT.<\/p>\n
But if the public's doubts are substantiated, our bet is that
\npeople will merely say that the busway was a policy that was
\nflawed from the start. And the citizenry will have to live with
\nwho knows how many more years of danger on the roads.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/busway-a-flawed-policy-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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