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’m a newcomer in Jakarta. Once I arrived in the city, I couldn’t help but admire all vehicles on the road, of which there are many. Every road is covered with vehicles, which causes traffic jams across the city — whether on shortcuts, main roads or flyovers. The roads are flooded by private and public vehicles, but the private ones dominate. It’s been two years since I first moved here, and it hasn’t changed. Private vehicles dominate the orphan.

Seeing that public transportation is being developed, I asked myself why so many people still used private vehicles. No wonder the traffic jams in Jakarta are worsening. The government tries to add public transportation with the hope that people will use it, but, unfortunately, people don’t care what government intends to do. They keep on buying and using private vehicles.

Once, when I was stuck in a traffic jam, I noticed that I was surrounded by many luxurious cars and motorcycles that were not driven properly. But the roads were mostly jammed with cars. The drivers’ faces showed the stress they faced almost constantly in the traffic jams. My question is, why don’t they use public transportation? If at least 10 people use public transportation, there will 10 fewer cars (with assumption being that one car is carrying one person, which will be explained shortly).

There are various common reasons why people don’t use public transportation: First, they don’t really like to be around others. In other words, they like something that’s private or exclusive. Public transportation is supposed to be a non-exclusive good, which means everyone can use it and enjoy the same benefits.

Second, it’s complicated for people who want to go to many different places, because not all public transportation passes the roads that they want to travel. Alternatively, they have to change the bus two or three times, or sometimes even more. Another alternative is using a taxi, but it’s not really the cheapest option, so the share of taxi users is not as high as bus users compared to all transportation users on the road. Moreover, when people decide to use public transportation, they have to add their cost. What’s that cost? The cost of waiting. Although your waiting time doesn’t necessarily cost you money, it does cost you time.

Third, some say that the cost of private transportation is cheaper than public. Well, I think that depends on what type of transportation a person uses. If they use a motorcycle, that argument is acceptable. But what if it’s cars or even luxurious cars? I would doubt that argument.

Fourth, related to exclusivity, people gain happiness if they bring something of value to society, because it increases their own value. They’re also happy when people around say they are affluent or rich, because they perceive it as reflecting on their value. There’s a “prestige” factor.

Before I arrived in Jakarta, I heard my friend’s story that the city was full of luxurious cars and only few less than luxurious cars. After arriving here, I saw she was right. Luxurious cars do not have to be on the same level as Ferraris or Lamborghinis. I think new cars, which cost more than Rp 100 million (US$11,100) can be categorized as luxurious.

The prestige of having their new cars is why they’re happy to use them and do not want to change to public vehicles. They think only about people’s perceptions. When the discussion of reducing private cars enters the “prestige” element, there’s almost no way out. It’s the same level of difficulty to find a solution to people consuming local goods instead of imported ones once they deny being prestige-minded. But even if the quality of the local goods is improved, they still won’t change their import consumption habits. Prestige plays an important role in these cases.

Some say that prestige is a contagious kind of way of living. Usually, people who enter high-class society will also have high-class style to match those around them. By seeing that their friends are into it, some are influenced by it, too. In the case of private transportation, because someone sees his or her friends, parents or neighbors using private transportation, the willingness to drive cars is solidified. Many children are given cars by their parents as soon as they are old enough to drive. They drive to school, the mall or other hangouts, etc. As result of this, there is often more than one car in a household, and sometimes one car for each member of a family. Count how many adults are inside their own cars, and that’s where the assumption of one person per one car comes from.

I see it all around me. Sometimes there are even more cars than there are people in the household. The others are not used and sit in the garage. They’re happy to use it, so they don’t think about how hard the government is working to provide public transportation. They think of ease in mobile access, the possibly lower costs and exclusivity and prestige to keep using their private vehicles. There is nothing wrong with this, however. Their choice to use private transportation does not violate the law or any regulation.

For those who choose private transportation because the government-provided public transportation is insufficient, you must realize that the government calculates how many people will probably change to public transportation if the service level is increased. Although public transportation such as the Transjakarta buses have been added, there are still rampant traffic jams. I don’t blame the private vehicle users; they have their reasons, but it’s hard for the government or any other institution to change public habits when people still consider their own prestige. The only thing needed here is awareness to support decreasing the frequency of traffic jams every day by any legal means. As a newcomer, I must say that Jakarta is not really beautiful but there are entertainment centers everywhere. But one thing reduces the city’s value: traffic jams.

Tika Anggara
Economics student at University of Indonesia, Economican at BOEconomica, loves going back to Yogyakarta.