Public remain unimpressed with busway
Public remain unimpressed with busway
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Even before the planned launching on Jan. 15, people are
reluctant to try the Jakarta administration's controversial
busway. Many car owners seem unwilling to give up the privilege
of driving to their destinations.
"I won't use the busway because it's impractical. People will
have to change buses when they intersect a busway corridor.
Where's the economic value there?" asked Christy Pattipeiluhu,
who works for IBM at the Landmark Building, located on Jl. Jend.
Sudirman, Central Jakarta.
"If I really have to take the busway, I want a bus that is
comfortable and on which all passengers get seats, and there are
no buskers or vendors," she told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Christy also raised concern that the buses would end up being
dirty, just like the air-conditioned Patas limited passenger
buses, after weeks of use.
The president director of Bank Muamalat, Riawan Amin, said "it
depends on the facility. I would ride on a bus that is clean and
cool, a bus where everyone gets a seat and there are no
criminals."
To support the busway, the administration started on Dec. 24 a
one-month trial of the new three-in-one policy along the busway
corridor from Blok M, South Jakarta, to Kota, West Jakarta, from
7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The administration
expects the extended hours to prompt people to use the busway.
Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) chairman Suyono Dikun
previously warned that the busway was unlikely to succeed as only
a small percentage of car owners would use it "because they're
already captive to their cars".
The busway project team claims to have modeled the busway on
the system in Bogota, Columbia, where once skeptical
businesspeople were won over once it proved to cut down on
traveling time.
Moreover, its implementation was complemented by feeder
services using air-conditioned buses to transport passengers into
the busway corridor.
Each bus there can carry 160 passengers, with a total of
770,000 commuters transported daily. In the early stage, the
administration prepared 470 buses and 300 feeder buses.
The Bogota administration also made systematic efforts to
familiarize its public with its busway; from publications in the
mass media, training for citizens from children to adults on how
the system works, including how to buy tickets, long before the
launching of the project.
In comparison, Jakarta will provide 56 air-conditioned buses
in the first phase, each with 35 seats and room for 50 standing
passengers. The buses will only be able to transport 20,000 from
60,000 commuters daily from Blok M to Kota. The route is the
first corridor out of the 14 planned.
The availability of feeder buses is still uncertain as
administration officials say that "it is still being discussed".
Jakarta transportation agency head Rustam Effendy has said
that the feeder buses would be buses currently operating, which
mostly are not air-conditioned.
There has been little promotion and few efforts to familiarize
the public with the busway. The project has basically been made
public by media reports, and just recently by television
commercials.