Not only Jakarta, but other big cities across the country could be faced with total gridlock if they continued to rely exclusively on road-based mass transportation, the Transportation Ministry said on Wednesday.
Deputy Transportation Minister Bambang Susantono said that if the transportation system in cities was not improved by 2014, roads could be choked by cars, buses and motorcycles.
“Total gridlock will occur if we don’t do something,” Bambang said, adding that the threat was extremely dire in metropolitan areas with satellite cities, such as Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi, collectively known as Jabodetabek, as well as in Gresik, Bangkalan, Kertosono, Mojokerto, Surabaya, Sidoarjo and Lamongan in East Java, known as Gerbang Kertasusilo.
He was speaking at the Transportation Safety Awareness workshop in Jakarta, held by the ministry and the Australian government.
Bambang said that such cities must integrate and utilize railway transportation in order to minimize road congestion. Large metros like Jakarta and Surabaya, he said, must also have bus rapid transit systems connected to the trains.
“If a city does not have an existing commuter train line it should maximize the use of BRT,” he said.
The ministry, Bambang said, has been carrying on discussions with the Ministry of Public Works to analyze which roads could be used for BRT. He also said that on several roads, the left lane should be dedicated exclusively for heavy vehicles.
“Roads in some countries have a high occupancy vehicle lane,” he said, adding that this was one alternative for managing traffic.
The ministry has been campaigning for the use of rails for mass transit because they are fast, cheap and more environmentally friendly than most other transportation modes. New routes have been added in Java and Sumatra in recent months, and old tracks have been reopened.
On Tuesday, the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) announced that five cities aside from Jakarta would suffer total gridlock by 2015 to 2025 if there was no effective transportation policy. The cities are Bandung, Makassar, Medan, Surabaya and Semarang.
Damantoro, MTI’s secretary of urban transportation, said the government must either make significant improvements or seek an alternative other than roads for transportation.
“Railway-based transportation is a must for cities that already have the facilities,”he said.
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