Special bus lane planned for Gambir to Blok M route

Special bus lane planned for Gambir to Blok M route

JAKARTA (JP): The City Traffic and Land Transportation Agency
(DLLAJ) is to establish a bus lane serving passengers to and from
Gambir railway station in Central Jakarta and Blok M Bus terminal
in South Jakarta, an official said on Friday evening.

Agency head Buyung Atang said at City Hall the proposed route
would likely utilize the far left of what is currently the
streets' fast lane.

"The new bus lane will enable buses to use the fast lanes
instead of the slow ones in order to avoid traffic congestion,"
he said.

"We will purchase about 50 buses to serve the new route,"
Buyung added, without giving further details on the budget
required.

He said Governor Sutiyoso had agreed to the proposal and had
ordered a team to evaluate it before its enactment.

He said people in the middle to upper income bracket would be
the main target for the bus lane. Buses serving the route would
be designed much better than the existing air-conditioned buses,
he added.

"Our main targets are businesspeople and employees working
along the busy streets of Jl. MH Thamrin, Jl. Sudirman, and Jl.
Sisingamangaraja," Buyung said.

"We expect those people to leave their cars at home and
instead use these new buses which can travel quickly through
congested streets," he said.

Each of the streets to be passed by the buses has three fast
lanes and two slow lanes.

Currently, city public buses use the slow lane together with
minibuses and private cars, often causing heavy traffic
congestion.

Under the new plan, no other vehicles would be allowed to use
the special lane, Buyung said.

"The fast lane can still accommodate two more lines of cars."

He therefore believed that the new system would help beat the
chronic traffic jams on the route.

"The agency also plans to carry out similar schemes along Jl.
Pramuka in East Jakarta and in other heavily congested routes,"
he added.

The fare for the new buses has not yet been set, but Buyung
assured that it would not be much more expensive than the current
fare of Rp 2,300 (30 US cents) per passenger for air-conditioned
buses in the city.

He, however, did not explain how passengers would be able to
catch the buses. As the plan stands, they will have to cross two
slow lanes, which are usually heavily jammed with vehicles, to do
so.

The kilometer Gambir to Blok M route is one of the busiest in
the capital as it is mostly lined with skyscrapers.

Separately, the intercity Pulogadung bus terminal in East
Jakarta was operating normally on Sunday after the violent that
took place there a day earlier.

Governor Sutiyoso is scheduled to summon the bus terminal's
chief Nadias Syam to hear a firsthand report on the clash, which
erupted following a raid by DLLAJ officials against street
vendors at the terminal.

"The vendors have resumed their activities as if there wasn't
any trouble at all," a terminal official, identified as Bari,
said on Sunday.

Some 500 fruit, candy and cigarettes vendors pelted and broke
the windows of six intercity buses on Saturday in a protest
against the rough actions of DLLAJ officials assigned to drive
them away from the station.

Nadias said the vendors were violating a city bylaw on bus
terminal management. They had already been given several warnings
to leave the terminal, he added.

While traders claimed that DLLAJ officials had conducted rough
raids almost every day over the past week.

The traders said they were worried that taking their business
outside the terminal might cause traffic jams.

Saturday's clash was the third violent incident in the past
two weeks related to city officials' efforts to uphold public
order in the city.

On Feb. 29 a mob burned and damaged three official vehicles
following a crackdown against becak (pedicab) drivers in North
and West Jakarta. The second incident took place last Tuesday
when street vendors attacked 10 officials after a dawn operation.

In late February, Buyung said he would replace terminal chiefs
who had failed to uphold public order and maintain tidiness at
terminals.

"I have ordered them to rid the terminals from vendors,
pickpockets, hoodlums and the like. Most of them have failed to
do so," he said. (nvn)