Prodita Sabarini and Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 11/19/2009 1:10 PM
The Jakarta administration is failing to provide the subsidies essential to improve public transportation to ease the city's chronic gridlock, an expert says.
"The administration does not prioritize solving transportation problems. Especially in current Governor Fauzi Bowo's term, as his policy on transportation is vague, except for the MRT construction. But that's just a one-dimensional solution," chairman of the Institute of Transportation Studies (Instran) Darmaningtyas said Wednesday.
Transportation experts have frequently warned of impending traffic chaos, predicting a gridlocked city by 2014 if no action to solve the problem is taken. City Police reported a yawning gap between the growth of private cars and motorcycles - 9 percent - and the 0.01 percent annual rate of road expansion. Jakarta currently has more than 2 million private cars and 7 million private motorcycles and every day around 250 more cars and 1,500 more motorcycles are registered.
"Finish the busway system for the short term, improve pedestrian areas for the middle term, and develop the MRT for the long term," Darmaningtyas said.
A transportation expert from the Research and Technology Ministry M. Nuh Hidayat recently said investing in public transportation through subsidies was crucial to solve the capital's traffic problems.
Nuh said the financial return of investing in transportation might be low but the economic advantages were huge "because there will be no traffic jams, efficient energy use, a decrease in pollution, which will result in better health and a more efficient use of space."
Darmaningtyas said the Transjakarta system, in which the administration pays bus operators in the Transjakarta consortium per kilometer and subsidizes the cost per passenger, was an example of a good subsidy scheme. In 2007, operational costs per passenger were Rp 5,163, (55 US cents) and the administration subsidized Rp 1,663.
"The problem is subsidies should not just be for the busway but for other modes of public transport too," Darmaningstyas said.
He said subsidies would create a better transportation service as drivers would not work based on how many passengers they take, a system that caused buses and public minivans to stop and wait for passengers anywhere.
Experts have criticized the new traffic law which does not clearly define the government's responsibilities in providing public transportation, with their responsibility limited to issuing licenses.
Head of the Jakarta Transportation Council Edi Toet Hendratno said providing public transport was the government's responsibility.
"I suggest the local administration and the transportation companies discuss subsidy schemes and find solutions," Edi said, proposing that subsidies should be temporary until the transportation companies became more independent.
Governor Fauzi said Wednesday President Yudhoyono had welcomed his idea of setting a cheaper rate for liquefied natural gas (LNG) for public transport. "The President ordered that attention be paid to this issue," he said.
Fauzi said cheaper LNG rates would stimulate the use of low-emission fuel in public transport vehicles.
