Councillors want 'ojek', chopper in bylaw
Councillors want 'ojek', chopper in bylaw
Rizky KD Ntoma and Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As a metropolis, Jakarta has a wide range of transportation
modes. Just name it: limousines, private cars, public buses,
minivans, taxis, commuter trains, are all already available on
city streets.
There are two modes of transportation that have not yet been
included in the draft bylaw on transportation: helicopters and
ojek (motorcycle or bicycle taxi).
These should also be included as a mode of transportation,
according to City Council's Commission A for development affairs,
as many people use the services of ojek and helicopter.
"We should include ojek as a means of transportation. In
reality it is popular and the number of ojek keeps increasing,"
said Commission D chairman Koeswadi Soesilohardjo at the City
Council's plenary session on Wednesday.
Koeswadi, who read Commission D's response to the draft bylaw,
also stressed the need to regulate the use of helicopters in a
separate bylaw as in reality they were also used by certain
citizens.
Other means of transportation that currently exist in the city
are bajaj (three-wheeled motorized pedicab) and bemo (similar
with bajaj but with a larger seating capacity).
Head of the Jakarta Transportation Agency Rustam Effendi said
earlier that bajaj and bemo were not environmentally friendly and
therefore should not be listed as a public transportation
vehicle.
What type of vehicles can be considered a recognized means of
transportation is still a hot issue since the motorcycle taxi is
not mentioned in Law No. 14/1999 on transportation which the
bylaw should refer to.
Commission D also expressed agreement with the city
administration's proposal to use rivers for transportation,
hoping that it would be able to resolve serious traffic
congestion in the city during peak hours.
"Rivers in Jakarta have the potential to offer an alternative
means of transportation although problems might occur as they are
in a poor condition," Koeswadi said.
He also said that using rivers for transportation would
prompt the administration to improve the existing rivers which
are dirty, shallow and narrow.
Currently, many Jakartans also use gethek (bamboo rafts) to
cross rivers.
Similar comments also came from spokesman of Commission A for
legal and administrative affairs Ishak Iskandar. Commission A and
D are assigned by Council leaders to discuss the transportation
bylaw in depth.
Previously, assistant to the city secretary for development
affairs Irzal Djamal said that the administration would use a
section of the Ciliwung river from Pasar Baru in Central Jakarta
to Ancol in North Jakarta as a pilot project for river
transportation.
But experts have said that the canals and rivers were unsuited
for transportation given their poor condition.
Rustam Effendi hoped that the deliberation of the draft bylaw
would be completed before the end of this year as it is expected
to become the legal basis of the bus rapid transit (BRT) or
busway project, scheduled to be launched in late December.
Experts said that it seemed the councillors needed more time
to deliberate the bylaw due to the complexity of transportation
problems in the city.