Letter: MRT construction

This is a comment from The Jakarta Post’s website in response to the article entitled “Accelerate MRT construction: VP” published on Sept 28, 2010. Vice President Boediono is right to be seeking to speed up the construction of the MRT. But be assured that the traffic in Jakarta will become much worse before the MRT starts to improve things. So don’t rely upon the currently projected “rollout” of the MRT to have any effect for at least a decade. But there are many things the government could be doing in the shorter term to ease the growing traffic problem.

A good start would be to remove the fuel subsidy on all petrol sold in the Greater Jakarta regions and divert the government savings straight into a faster rollout of the MRT. Put in parking meters as a deterrence to all-day free parking and with the income subsidize the buses. Maybe put some free buses on some central Jakarta routes. Asking the Japanese to speed up the design won’t have any impact on the traffic problems within five to 10 years.

Nairdah
Sydney