City transit system needs breakthrough

City transit system needs breakthrough

JAKARTA (JP): A transportation expert of Trisakti University
urged the city administration yesterday to adopt a clear-cut
megapolitan strategy on transportation and urban development to
help solve problems of the chronic congestion in the city.

F. Trisbiantara, a lecturer of the university's civil
engineering and planning school, said in a one-day seminar on
transportation that failure to adopt a suitable transportation
system would have the city facing chaotic transportation
problems.

"It is important for the city administration to choose an
appropriate system to help solve traffic congestion, which forces
motorists to spend much of their time on the roads every day,"
Trisbiantara said.

The seminar, which was opened by Deputy Governor for
Government Affairs Idroes, was held by Trisakti University in
cooperation with Mott Mac Donald International, PT Djasa
Ubersakti, PT Dayatama Intratechnika Nusantara, Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia and MS TRI 104.4 FM radio station.

Trisbiantara reiterated that current congestion problems will
worsen if the administration does nothing and just lets the
current transportation system run the way it is.

According to him the current transportation system in the
city is inconsistent, and that once a particular strategy is
adopted the administration should be consistent in its
implementation.

He also pointed out that the city public transportation
services are poor and unreliable.

"Therefore it is also important to improve the quality of the
city mass transportation means," Trisbiantara said.

Meanwhile, Idroes said that the city administration has
planned a city mass rapid transit system to accommodate commuters
until 2015. The first stage of the system is to build a 13-km
subway system between Blok M and Kota.

"The city administration realizes that traffic constitutes the
biggest problem in the city," Idroes said. (yns)