Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Jakartans might agree that crawling along, hour after hour, trapped in traffic is the major urban living issue of the year, with the busway being the subject of the hour.
But the Jakarta administration says it has a remedy for the exasperating traffic situation -- a macro transportation framework.
Since experts in 2004 drew up a comprehensive plan for moving people and goods about the city -- the Transporation Framework -- Jakarta has been expecting something big to happen.
The framework is a grand 10-year plan for an integrated transportation system that, it is hoped, will ameliorate chronic traffic congestion and stave off gridlock -- predicted by 2014.
The framework comprises busways, a water taxi, rail-based transportation, a monorail, and a subway, as well as roads linking them together in an integrated system.
Transportation experts have clearly stated that without a public transportation system none of the world's big cities can go on functioning correctly.
As the cheapest mass transportation method the administration has ever built, the busway has drawn applause but also criticism.
The fact sheet says the number of commuters using the busway has increased since its first year of operation, abreast with the growing number of busway corridors: from 15.94 million in 2004, to 20.8 million in 2005 and 38.83 million in 2006, according to busway operator TransJakarta. TransJakarta 2007 will see 59.44 million riders use the busway seven routes.
On the ugly side, apparently the busway has done little to ease congestion because it hasn't been an attractive choice for most motorists. Fewer-than-needed buses and "huge" operational costs have been blamed for poor service, which in turn holds back popularity.
"A project will become a milestone only if we have both good planning and implementation," says Soetanto Soehodho, a transportation expert at the University of Indonesia's Center for Transportation Studies. "The busway plan is excellent. The entangling problems are in the implementation."
The administration is constructing three new busway lanes that are expected to be finished by Dec. 15. The construction has resulted in even worse congestion. Temporary relief was given to motorists when they were allowed to use certain sections of busway lanes in November. The policy, however, hurts busway users because it takes them longer to reach their destinations.
As Soetano suggests, one problem after another will prevent the success of transportation schemes unless they are well-planned and implemented. It is more important for the administration, he says, to evaluate and optimize the seven existing corridors than to build new ones.
Meanwhile, it seems busway progress has temporarily come to a stop -- even before all the new corridors have been rolled out. "The city budget has been available only since around May this year, while public bidding for such construction takes five to six months of preparation and three to six months for the process itself," says Budi Kuntjoro of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. "Such condition can result in months of delays."
The presence of the busway system is not to blame for traffic delays; the presence and growing number of private vehicles that occupy 90 percent of the road space is, says Budi.
"The efficiency of private vehicles is also low as they carry only half of the total passengers."
Approximately 1.5 million cars were sold last year in Jakarta. During the first three months of this year 1.51 million cars and 3.32 motorcycles were sold.
"The number of vehicles sold every year rises by 10 percent, while the roadway expands by no more than 0.1 percent annually," he says.
Jakarta roadway is now equal to 40 square kilometers and can only accommodate -- at any one time -- only 0.01 percent of the total number of cars, according to City Public Works Agency head Wisnu Subagya Yusuf.
To help reduce traffic by limiting the use of private vehicles, electronic road pricing (ERP) is one answer, Budi says. The institute is still doing feasibility studies for a Rp 1 trillion (US$107.53 million) ERP project and hopes to have it in place by 2011.
One way or another, a working traffic system will require mass transportation, limiting the use of private vehicles and re-mapping the routes used by private motorists, says Soetanto.
However, there is always the risk that traffic jams will simply be displaced rather than eliminated. Creating new roads -- except as part of a comprehensive plan -- would only encourage the use of private vehicles and be a temporary solution says Andi Rahmah of the Indonesian Transportation Society. "Road expansion will never resolve traffic congestion."
Rules regarding ownership and use of private vehicles may be one solution, but the administration will likely choose something "safer".
As one of Indonesia's leading industries, it wouldn't be practical to impinge on auto makers," said Fauzi.
In Soetanto's opinion, limiting the use of private vehicles can be successful if "suitable mass transportation options are already available for car users ready to make the switch".
In another attempt at traffic mitigation, the administration has committed to a multi-trillion Mass Rapid Transit -- or subway -- project by 2014.
The project will unlikely be derailed at this point as the administration has been promised the approximately Rp 8.3 trillion it needs for the project in the form of soft loans by Japan Bank for International Cooperation. The project also enjoys the support of the central government.
"We have the central government on our side. Unlike the monorail project, which is handled by a private company. I guarantee this MRT project will be successful," then-deputy governor Fauzi Bowo said in August when revealing the project road map.
In the first phase, the MRT will be able to transport 400,000 commuters daily from Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, to Dukuh Atas, Central Jakarta -- 14.3 kilometers -- in only 32 minutes.
The long-delayed monorail project depends on whether there is political will to make it a reality. "It is a matter of how to attract investment, too," says Soetanto.
The administration once had an ambition to see through the $480-million monorail project. But the fate of the project is now hanging on a thread and fail entirely as neither the city nor central government has recently given any clear signs on the project.
Meanwhile, one foreign investor after another has come and left -- after finding the financial scheme offered by monorail developer PT Jakarta Monorail didn't suit them, notwithstanding central government backing. The monorail developer is suspected to be insolvent although director Sukmawaty Syukur denies the accusation.
"The monorail project has stopped because (Jakarta Monorail) doesn't have the money," said then-deputy governor Fauzi. The on-and-off project construction has left a series of idle pillars along Central and South Jakarta's main streets.
Wondering if railway-based transportation is the key to traffic mitigation, the central government and the city launched the double-track railway linking Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta and Serpong in Banten in July. The project cost the central government Rp 320 billion. The Serpong-Tanah Abang route is to be the pilot for the country's first modern railway network.
The administration is also planning to connect Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport with a double-track railway.
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