Right to public transportation

Right to public transportation

Teguh Utomo Atmoko, Jakarta

Yes, it's high time that Jakarta had a decent public
transportation system. However, learning from other large world
metropolises, does Jakarta really need subways and monorails?
Many mass rapid transit systems in many big world cities struggle
to meet minimum required riderships -- the number of people who
utilize a public transportation system -- therefore the public is
forced to foot the bill through subsidies. Even with the Jakarta
monorail project, there are already indications that the public
purse have to bear the burden before the system is operational.

Good public transportation systems should provide safe, cheap
and efficient means for city populations to move about, both the
haves and the have-nots. However, due to the present physical
condition of Jakarta, which is too spread out, only several
options are available.

Mass transit systems just require adequate riderships to be
financially feasible. Subways and monorails, on the other hand,
require substantial ridership to be financially feasible.

Unlike Hong Kong and Singapore where the populations that use
the subways are concentrated around stations, the middle and
upper strata of Jakarta's population -- the targeted users of
subways and monorails -- live in relatively vast, low-density
areas in the South, West and East of Jakarta.

Therefore, it will be very difficult to secure enough
ridership for any kind of transportation system in a city like
Jakarta, much less subways and monorails.

Feeder systems that theoretically increase the catchment area
of mass rapid transit systems in many cases turn into financial
disasters. In Jakarta, this will happen due to a lack of
coordination between feeder operators, as well as the
impracticality of transits and transfers in the Jakarta
environment.

At present, the only feasible transportation mode is probably
busways. When the physical condition of the city has changed such
that populations and businesses are concentrated in particular
areas that can be easily be connected to each other by either
subway or monorail, then it will be time for Jakarta to utilize
these particular systems.

To achieve this condition, there must be strong political
commitment from the government, the private sector and the
general public. Only they together have the ability to determine
the city's future physical shape.

The existing rail network in Greater Jakarta is still
underutilized, partly because there are far too many railway
crossings. However, the network plies areas that have potential
to be developed as catchment areas for a mass transit system.

For a reasonable cost, the existing rail network and busway
system could be expanded. The enormous capital required for new
mass rapid transit systems, such as subways and monorails, would
be far better spent improving the city's environment, for
example, by buying up land along the city's rivers and converting
it into public green space.

Just because Jakarta is a huge metropolitan city with a
population of eight million -- not including the four million
commuters who come in the Jakarta every day from areas outside
the city -- does not necessarily mean that the city must have a
subway or monorail.

The writer is a lecturer at the Department of Architecture,
Engineering School, University of Indonesia. He can be reached at
tiua@eng.ui.ac.id