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Jakarta Post

Officers to keep busway lanes free of motorists

After years of lip service, the city administration is about to get serious with its efforts to clear motorists from the Transjakarta busway lanes in the city

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Sat, July 31, 2010 Published on Jul. 31, 2010 Published on 2010-07-31T12:23:53+07:00

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Officers to keep busway lanes free of motorists

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fter years of lip service, the city administration is about to get serious with its efforts to clear motorists from the Transjakarta busway lanes in the city.

The city announced Friday it would deploy 468 officers from several institutions to ensure no motorists used the special bus lanes starting Monday.

The administration will launch the operation along four busway corridors — corridor I connecting Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta, corridor III connecting Kalideres in West Jakarta to Harmoni in Central Jakarta, corridor V connecting Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta to Ancol in North Jakarta and corridor VI connecting Ragunan in South Jakarta to Dukuh Atas in Central Jakarta.

Officers from the Jakarta Transportation Agency, Public Order Agency, police and army will stop all unauthorized vehicles from using the lanes.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Udar Pristono told news portal kompas.com on Friday that his office would deploy 123 officers for the operation.

The agency will deploy 29 officers along corridor I, 30 officers along corridor III and 32 officers each along corridors V and VI.

Udar said the remaining officers would be from other forces or institutions.

The operation is part of the administration’s efforts to improve Transjakarta services, which it says were being hampered by vehicles entering the bus lanes. These motorists crowd the lanes, giving rise to congestion and possible accidents.

Transjakarta is a public transport service provided by the city administration since 2004. It is aimed at getting people to use public transport with buses running on exclusive lanes that are supposed to be traffic-free.

But in reality, almost all motorists encroach on the lanes, sometimes risking their lives and the lives of bus passengers.

The administration’s attempt to deal with the issue by banning vehicles from entering the lanes failed as other lanes were already congested, leaving the authorities no option but to allow motorists to use the busway lanes during rush hour.

However, the administration looks set to push through the policy next month, saying that motorists encroaching into busway lanes put the lives of many at risks.

There have been a number of accidents involving Transjakarta buses with most caused by vehicles or pedestrians using the bus lanes.

There were 270 accidents recorded in 2009, higher than the 66 in 2007 and 167 in 2008.

The latest incident happened on Thursday when a Transjakarta bus hit a jaywalker. The victim died instantly at the scene.

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