2006 review
Transportation patchwork gives city an ugly face
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak
THE JAKARTA POST — Now this is a tough choice: Do you stay in your comfortable car that can take you to any destination, or do you switch between three different sorts of public transportation just to get to one place?
Judging by the number of cars and motorcycles rolling along the city's streets, Jakarta's residents aren't finding it a difficult decision to make.
A joint study conducted by the National Development Planning Board and the Japan International Cooperation Agency on the integrated transportation master plan for Greater Jakarta, released in 2003, has predicted that by 2020, poor service will have cause the city's public transportation numbers to drop by 60 percent.
The increasing number of private vehicles has lead to traffic congestion and worsening air pollution. Access to public transportation is poor.
This year the government has attempted to show its commitment to improving public transportation in the capital.
Jakartans have seen the start - and the completionof a handful of public transportation projects initiated by the Jakarta administration and the central government.
The projects include the integrated busway corridors, the would-be monorail, four-track railroads to Tanjung Priok Port and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and the recently approved Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system (see map), as well as much-criticized plans for eight new inner-city turnpikes.
To further discourage people from driving their cars, the administration has already raised on-street parking fees in 11 main streets and six public places in the city by 50 percent, bringing them closer to the levels of commercial parking fees in office buildings and shopping centers.
Transportation experts, however, say that the government still does not have a thorough program.
City Transportation Board chairman Soetanto Soehodho urged the city administration to first prioritize providing a comprehensive public transportation system before going on with its larger projects.
"It would only burden commuters for nothing," he said.
Jakarta-based Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) chairman Bambang Susantono said that transportation policy was actually a political decision that hardly touched on the interests of the people.
"It's important to realize that a change in the transportation system could effectively change people's lifestyles."
Governor Sutiyoso's pride and joy is the busway, a breakthrough as it successfully persuaded people to leave their cars at home.
But the project is not without its flaws. Environmentalists have questioned the lack of supporting facilities for the busway.
Jakarta Environment Caucus member Tubagus Haryono Karbyanto said that the city administration should not rushing the construction of more busway corridors to meet the planned 18 corridors in total, until the three existing corridors had optimal feeder systems.
"Transporting people is more than just moving them from one bus stop to another ... It's about taking people from home to their destination, which oftentimes is more than one place," he said.
To avoid a shortfall of busway passengers the city administration implemented the three-in-one policy, but as a consequence, traffic congestion has moved to other streets running parallel to the passenger limitation zone.
Another example of patchwork policy can be seen in the on-and-off monorail project that has seen a lot of controversy this year over its funding problems.
To support the project, the city administration said it planned to provide a feeder bus station,service, as well as an electronic road pricing system, which would oblige car drivers to pay fees on entering monorail routes.
Project holder PT Jakarta Monorail and the administration agreed that the latter should guarantee the passenger shortfall, worth US$22.5 million over five years, on a fifty-fifty basis with the central government, in the case of passenger numbers falling below the target of 160,000 per day.
Japan has recently pledged to give a soft loan of US$16 million to the 11-year-old MRT plan. The money would go to the engineering design for the long-awaited and ambitious subway project that would link Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to Kota in the West.
Its route - 70 percent of which would be above the ground, 30 percent underground - would overlap the first busway corridor "which is unnecessary and could cause an oversupply of public transportation in one small area," Darmaningtyas from MTI said.
While expanding the MRT route, the administration also removed trees from Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin to create extra lanes for private vehicles, encouraging more traffic into the city.
"The administration should stop creating policies that contradict each other," he said.
Moreover, Bambang Susantono added, with more overpasses to be built in the city's air, "the pride of being acknowledged as a sophisticated, rich city has overlooked the aesthetic aspect of a city, where people have the right to better public space without visual obstruction."
