Success of Eid Exodus Must Be Measured by Shift to Public Transport

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – The benchmark for the success of the Eid al-Fitr exodus now needs to shift. It is no longer just about the smoothness of traffic on toll roads.

But rather how far society has begun to switch from private vehicles to public transport, and how much the use of motorcycles for long-distance journeys has decreased.

This view was expressed by transportation observer Djoko Setijowarno, who is also an academic in the Civil Engineering Programme at Unika Soegijapranata and a member of the Advisory Board of the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI).

He highlighted the high dependence of society on private vehicles, which remains a dominant phenomenon during the exodus.

The root of the problem is not merely preference, but the limitations of public transport services, especially in destination areas.

This condition makes cars and motorcycles still dominate trips to hometowns, even for long distances that should be safer and more efficient to cover with mass transportation.

On the other hand, the limited access to public transport in destination areas forces returnees to still rely on private vehicles, both cars and motorcycles, to support their mobility in their hometowns.

According to him, such results are no longer objective because they only reflect traffic smoothness, not the overall quality of the transportation system.

“It is time for us to review the effectiveness of migrant satisfaction surveys. Those surveys are no longer objective because the results are certainly high, given that toll road smoothness has now become the minimum standard,” said Djoko to Kompas.com (30/3/2026).

Field facts show that the development of public transport in the regions is still far from ideal. Currently, only 42 local governments (Pemda) allocate budgets through the Regional Budget (APBD) to operate public transport.

The details consist of 12 provincial governments, 18 city governments, and 12 regency governments. That number is only about 8 percent of the total 514 local governments across Indonesia, which includes 38 provinces, 98 cities, and 416 regencies.