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