Give way to the busway: A Transjakarta employee hands out stickers during a campaign Wednesday to urge motorists not to drive in the busway lane at the Coca-Cola intersection in Central Jakarta. The campaign was held to ease traffic jams and reduce traffic accidents along the busway lane. JP/Ricky Yudhistira
The Transjakarta Management Body (BLU) held a campaign on Wednesday to encourage pedestrians and motorists to respect road rules associated with exclusive busway lanes.
The campaign was aimed at improving the Transjakarta busway service, used by some 240,000 people per day in the first half of this year, a 13 percent increase from the same period last year, BLU head Daryati Asrining Rini said.
“If [busway] lanes were [free from other vehicles], bus delays and passenger waiting times could be reduced,” Rini said.
The campaign was held simultaneously in eight busy locations, including Glodok in West Jakarta,
the Coca Cola intersection and Senen in Central Jakarta, Jl. Pemuda in East Jakarta, and Mampang, South Jakarta.
It was supported by the City Traffic Police, the Jakarta Transportation Agency and the Institute for Transportation and Development (ITDP) transportation consultancy.
Campaign participants wearing green shirts distributed stickers and pins to motorists and members of the public.
BLU spokesman Prasetia Budi said the paraphernalia was handed out along busway corridors with
the highest numbers of reported violations.
Beggars and street vendors who had often been caught jaywalking across the busway lanes at the Coca-Cola intersection, for example, were targeted in the campaign because they were prone to accidents involving Transjakarta buses, he said.
“We want to remind them to be careful when crossing the lanes,” Budi told The Jakarta Post, adding that in Glodok officers had reprimanded motorcyclists and pedestrians who often ignored traffic signs along busway lanes.
There has been wide concern over traffic accidents involving Transjakarta busway corridors since the network’s introduction in 2004.
According to BLU data, throughout 2008 there were 169 accidents on the seven existing busway corridors. However, between January and July 2009 more than 120 accidents had already been recorded. Most of these busway-related accidents involved pedestrians and motorcyclists.
Accidents were also reported on corridors 3 (Kalideres-Pasar Baru) and 6 (Ragunan-Latuharhari).
Another executive of BLU, Anthon R. Parura, said Corridor 1, plying the Blok M-Kota route, was the only route exempted from the campaign because of the low number of reports of busway lane violations there.
“The lanes on the Corridor 1 route are fairly clear thanks to a larger road capacity,” he said.
The high number vehicles using busway lanes illegally had prompted Deputy Governor Prijanto to ask for public opinions on a plan to build automatic gates that would restrict access to busway lanes to Transjakarta buses only.
Earlier, Jakarta Transportation Agency and PT Limo installed a prototype of an automatic gate near the Kwitang shelter in Central Jakarta.
The company has announced a plan to install similar barriers on the 15 lanes recording the highest numbers of trespassing vehicles, but the plan has yet to gain approval from the transportation agency.
On June 1, a man crossing Central Jakarta’s Jl. Letjen. Suprapto died instantly after being hit by a Transjakarta bus.
Earlier in April, a couple riding a motorcycle were hit by a Transjakarta bus on Jl. Raya Daan Mogot in West Jakarta. The woman died, and her husband was severely injuried.
