Only 14% of busway passengers used to drive: Study
Only 14% of busway passengers used to drive: Study
Bambang Nurbianto
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Seven months after its launch on Jan. 15, the busway has only
managed to attract around 5,600 private car owners, or 14 percent
of the busway's 40,000 daily commuters.
The figure was revealed recently in a study held by the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in March.
The study shows that around 79 percent of the busway
passengers are former bus passengers, the routes of which had to
be closed following the operation of the busway.
From the 79 percent, or around 31,600 people, some 11,060 are
former passengers of non air-conditioned buses, followed by
around 10,110 former passengers of air-conditioned buses and
1,890 former motorcyclists. Another 1,580 formerly used taxis and
316 passengers transferred from bajaj (three-wheeled motorized
vehicle) and commuter trains.
TransJakarta Busway Management infrastructure division head
Taufik Adiwianto said that having only one corridor from Blok M,
South Jakarta, to Kota, West Jakarta, was not enough to serve the
public and therefore could not significantly reduce the number of
private cars.
In the end, those factors only increase congestion as the
busway, with a fleet of only 56 buses, occupies one of the fast
lanes.
"The number of private car users switching to the busway is
insignificant as of now as we only have one corridor," he said on
Thursday.
Taufik hoped the operation of the new busway corridor from
Pulogadung, East Jakarta, to Kalideres, West Jakarta, via the
National Monument (Monas) starting next year would encourage more
private car owners to use the busway.
Prior to the busway launch earlier this year, Governor
Sutiyoso had repeatedly urged private vehicle owners to leave
their cars at home and use the busway as an effort to minimize
traffic congestion, particularly on major thoroughfares.
The study also asked respondents to comment on the busway
service, fares, frequency of using the buses and the reasons why
they use the busway.
From its 400 respondents, some 66 percent said that the busway
fare was reasonable, 25 percent said it was cheap and 7 percent
said it was expensive.
Taufik said the ongoing research conducted by the University
of Indonesia Center for Transport Studies would give more
information about the performance of the Blok M-Kota busway
corridor.