Behind the scenes on the busway project

Sachin Gopalan, Business Analyst, Jakarta
sachin.gopalan@jditeam.com

Everyone nowadays seems to be going ballistic over the shiny brand new TransJakarta project of the Governor of Jakarta. Everyone wonders at the twisted logic behind some of the decisions of the administration. Are they wrong or is it just exciting to prove them wrong? What were they thinking? What really goes on in their minds before they take major decisions that affect our daily lives?

I am quite convinced that the administration must have acted largely on a letter of suggestion received from one among the thousand self styled expert consultants who live in Jakarta. If you don't know what I mean, here is one such letter the project manager of TransJakarta Busway Project could have received in the early stages of the busway project:

"Dear Sir, last night as I was trying to sleep after reading about your proposed Busway project, I had a premonition about your project going wrong when you launch it. After thinking about this all night, I decided to write to you and offer you my expertise in managing a future problem.

Your main problem is going to be the issue of Public Transportation Culture. We do not have this in Jakarta, as this is something reserved for the "have-nots". The rest of the people buy cars. You say that the traffic problem is created by the car owners and of course they are the ones who will be against using public transportation.

One can't blame them really, they have been conditioned by years of your infrastructural neglect and thereby driven to purchase cars, also elevating their social standing in the process. So why should they use your Busway? No sir, it is those who travel by the regular private buses, angkots and ojeks who will be happy with your busway. But this does not help you in any way.

So you have a big problem to handle. How do you get the crowded cars off the road to make the Busway project look good? As I am an expert traffic consultant and advisor, I have a strategic busway plan for you.

As you know, we need to get car users to change over to the Busway. Let us look at the car population in Jakarta. If you say that an estimated four million cars run the roads of the city, quite obviously, they will not just sell of the cars or keep them at home, unused and costing money to maintain. So let's make it difficult for them and squeeze them out of the CBD area. You will not have to worry about people complaining if there are no people there to complain.

Firstly, let us reserve one lane exclusively for the busway. This will reduce the lanes available for the other vehicles and put a lot of traffic pressure on the drivers. Now everyone will have to crowd in the narrowed main road, and watch a busway pass by every 3 or 4 minutes. They will get angry at the glaringly obvious fact that the reserved busway lane is very much empty and underutilized. Three minutes is a very long time for a road to be vacant, especially if cars are packed in like sardines cans alongside.

It is like adding salt on their wounds and this will make them very angry. And sir, do not worry if TransJakarta buses have to line up when one of them breaks down. We can get a towing truck to back into the lane from somewhere up ahead. The watching public will think that you don't know what you are doing and will seriously think of avoiding the CBD area altogether in the future.

For an even better result, I would like to suggest you to place an Extended Three-in-one (E3-1) policy where three persons have to be in the car anyway along the zone. Now we can discourage car owners from using mannequins (yes, this is true, you may not know of it, but there are many dummies being driven around in cars in the CBD area) and jockeys at the entrances to the zone.

Please also add additional evening timings and combine this with a hefty fine (I suggest keeping this to something outrageous, like perhaps the Airport Fiscal Exit Tax) and this will surely keep unwanted cars out of the CBD area. Sometimes, sir, I wonder if we should not use this policy in restaurants too. Three people minimum at a table, or else take away your food. Do you have a family member working in the department responsible for hotels and restaurants that I can talk to?

Anyway, E3-1 will really work because it implies that the third person in the cars has to work in the same building, because they cannot get out of the car just anywhere in between. Everyone absolutely has to go to the same destination.

What are the chances of this happening? Very remote sir, so you will see an immediate reduction of cars on the road, I guarantee. You are also killing two birds with one stone. E3-1 will generate permanent employment for car jockeys.

Office executives can now hire official car jockeys to ride in the car whenever they have to go somewhere and send them back to the office conveniently on the busway. Think of how many new permanent jobs you can create. And additionally, you will always have these new passengers to fill your busway during the daytime and make it look successful.

I would also like to inform you about the long term benefits of my strategy. I have observed that many businesses owners are also car owners. They will soon figure out that it's not really convenient to be working in the Central Business District with all these problems thrown at them.

After all, they do base themselves there to have easy proximity to clients, partners and suppliers. So then if access is a problem, they will all move to lesser crowded areas in the city. Companies will start relocating when the leases run out. Then the traffic in the CBD area will definitely reduce and make your busway project look like a runaway success.

I assure you that it will not be long before patience wears thin and people actually start thinking of seriously making use of the Busway or get out of there, both of which will make you look good. In the end, I promise you that with my strategy, the Busway will win.

I have already consulted my neighbor, a psychologist who works at some park in Ragunan area, and he confirms that people, like many of his regular clients, have a very short memory and soon, like our government's regular gasoline price increases, this will become a way of life for people and they will start thinking it's the Busway or the highway.

If you like my suggestions and ideas, can you please consider giving me a free parking slot along the Busway corridor entrances so that I too can start using the Busway? In return, I promise to write regular articles praising the busway project."

Mark my words, they are everywhere and you are surrounded. So surrender and meekly join the ranks. Pain can sometimes be a self elevating experience and signify rebirth into something new and exciting. No pain, no gain, so let's all take the busway, again and again.