Residents worried new busway will aggravate traffic woes
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration's poor education campaign over its controversial busway scheme has made many Jakartans confused and worried about worsening traffic jams, despite the fact the new system is designed to ease traffic woes.
Yunita, 30, who works for a foreign bank on Jl. Imam Bonjol, Central Jakarta, could not imagine the delays she would experience driving to work from her home in Ciputat, South Jakarta, as the project would use one of the three lanes of the city's main roads.
"I don't agree with the plan ... The project won't work well, I assure you, it will result in more chaos," Yunita told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Yunita usually needs about an hour and a half to reach work, but with heavy traffic congestion it can take more than two and a half hours.
She doubted the busway system would be effective.
She struggled to imagine the results of the system, as motorists would have to stop every few minutes to allow bus users to cross the road to catch the bus from the median strips.
This will also be dangerous for the passengers especially because motorists here are notorious for its reckless way of driving and most of them just ignore zebra crossings.
The new Rp 90.5 billion system will use 60 air-conditioned buses, each with 54 seats. The buses will ply the 12.9-kilometer route from Blok M, South Jakarta to Kota, West Jakarta at intervals of five minutes.
The project, initially expected to begin in October last year, has been postponed several times, mainly due to poor planning. The City Transportation Agency failed to provide an exact date for the start of the project, but Governor Sutiyoso hinted it could be by the middle of the year. Two buses will begin trials next month, but they won't carry passengers.
To date, many changes have been made to the original plan, but most will have no impact on anticipated problems.
One of the controversial concepts launched by the City Transportation Agency on Tuesday, was to use existing parking lots around Blok M for private vehicles belonging to would-be bus passengers.
"It's silly. The parking plots belong to private owners, which have the right to use the parking lots for their own purposes. The agency can not simply claim the lots for their own purposes," said J. Sumabrata, an urban transport researcher for non- governmental organization Pelangi.
Sumabrata said the plan to use the already fully used parking lots would disturb businesses in the vicinity.
The project, which will use one of three lanes along the main arteries from Blok M to Kota, aims to encourage private vehicle owners to use buses.
However, Yunita was skeptical that private car owners would opt to use buses.
"Of course, I don't want to pay high parking fees in Blok M."
Experts have warned that the administration needs a more integrated and thought through plan. Otherwise, the project is doomed to fail, resulting in further chaos.
In the early 1990s, the administration implemented a system which allowed buses to use the fast lane along Jl. Jend. Sudirman and Jl. MH Thamrin. The project failed as passengers had difficulty crossing the motorway to the buses in the fastlane near the median strip. The failure forced the administration to abandon the project and return to the old system where buses used the slow lane.
In the latest project, the administration has built two bus stops on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, from the planned 30 bus stops in every lane; red painted marks to show the dedicated bus lane from Blok M to Harmoni; and some information on notice boards.
Public access to information about the project thus far has also been very limited.
Some changes in busway project
Item previous recent -------------------------------------------------- Budget Rp 54 billion Rp 90.5 billion Buses 50 units 60 units Bridges pedestrian overpasses zebra crossings Road road dividers red painted marks