Perennial transit trouble<\/p>\n
Tourists from other developing countries are known to express
\nsurprise upon seeing hardly any old cars on Jakarta's streets. To
\nthem this seems to mirror an affluent society.<\/p>\n
This first impression evaporates, however, once they see the
\ncrowds of people at the side of the roads trying to chase down
\nthe horribly overcrowded city buses during peak hours.<\/p>\n
What they see is only the surface of the deep rooted and
\ndisturbing problem of the dehumanization our transit system
\ncauses. Once people enter the pickpocket infested buses they lose
\ntheir significance as individual human beings to become abstract
\neconomic units labeled "passengers" which are worth only a few
\nhundred rupiahs.<\/p>\n
The drivers, well known to the public as demons on wheels, and
\ntheir conductors, all of whom are driven by the need to meet the
\ndaily rent for the buses with which they earn their livings, jam
\nas many as possible of these economic units into the buses.<\/p>\n
Human life, much less dignity and traffic regulations, has
\nceased to have a meaning to bus crews due to the pressure of
\nhaving to pay through the nose for the right to earn a living.
\nThis city has recorded countless instances of passengers having
\nbeen killed due to the actions of desperate and reckless drivers.<\/p>\n
The public, for which the transit system is a vital link in
\ntheir daily activities, has yearned for the opportunity to choose
\nfrom a variety of convenient and comfortable means of
\ntransportation for both long distance and short distance travel.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of people in the capital, whose incomes
\nprohibit the purchase of even a bicycle, let alone a motorcycle
\nor a car, need not only the large buses provided along the main
\nroads under the existing scheme of things, but also the kind of
\nvehicles that can enter even the narrowest of the alleyways that
\ncrisscross their kampongs.<\/p>\n
They need these vehicles to facilitate the running of their
\neveryday errands, but also in case of emergency situations like
\naccidents and births, especially those occurring at night when
\nlarger transit vehicles cease plying the streets.<\/p>\n
There was once the slow moving pedicab, know locally as the
\nbecak, but it was cleared off the streets of the capital in 1990
\nto facilitate traffic flow. The drivers of the becak, which had
\ncrisscrossed the streets of Jakarta with passengers since World
\nWar II, had to go to other towns outside of Jakarta. Their
\nbicycle cabs were then dumped into the sea to become habitats for
\ncoral and fish.<\/p>\n
The man-powered pedicab was loved by people from all walks of
\nlife because it served several vital functions and met their
\nbasic transportation needs. Since the becak's passing, there has
\nbeen no suitable replacement. Even the bemo and bajai, as well as
\nthe illegal ojek motorcycle taxis, that stepped in to try to meet
\nthe need, don't fill the bill.<\/p>\n
Now Jakartans face even more transit-related uncertainty,
\nwith Jakarta Governor Surjadi Soedirdja saying on Wednesday that
\nthe municipal administration will soon start eliminating all
\nother outdated vehicles from the streets of the capital city. The
\nthree-wheeled vehicles he was referring to are the bemo and the
\nbajaj, which are no longer considered suitable for transporting
\npassengers.<\/p>\n
Surjadi said the ugly bemo will be replaced by a 1000-cc
\nfour-wheeled vehicle especially designed with the same five
\npassenger capacity as the bemo to ply narrow residential
\nstreets.<\/p>\n
One might ask "Why now, long after the bemo or bajaj clearly
\nfailed too replace the becak? The answer lies in the inability of
\nthe city authorities to find a suitable vehicle to replace the
\npedicab during the last four years. There was once the much
\ntalked about idea to introduce the tuk-tuk (three-wheeled, open-
\nsided taxi which is popular in Bangkok). The idea was rejected by
\nmany people because the tuk-tuk is designed to carry a large
\namount of passengers at a time and people would end up waiting
\nfor the driver to fill it to capacity before moving.<\/p>\n
The question foremost in everyone's mind at this moment must
\nbe just when this transit dilemma will be brought to an end.<\/p>\n
We just hope that the authorities, who have clearly failed to
\nformulate a viable modern public transportation system, will not
\ndrive away the bemo and bajaj before suitable vehicles to replace
\nthem are found to serve the public.<\/p>\n
The people have long suffered from the phasing out of the
\nbecak and it is high time the authorities found some other way to
\nmeet their transit needs.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/perennial-transit-trouble-1447893297",
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