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.