Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has expressed his support for the grassroots movement '€œBusway Kick'€, which seeks to discourage unauthorized use of Transjakarta bus lanes. He said he hoped social action could prove more effective than police fines in keeping motorists out of the lanes.

'€œI personally fully support it. It'€™s good because a social sanction is directly given by the people,'€ he said during an inspection of the Pluit Reservoir renovation project in North Jakarta on Wednesday.

The movement was launched by 62-year-old Muhammad Daivi, who while waiting for a Transjakarta bus gave a thumbs-down to a Mercedes-Benz driving in the bus lane in Manggarai, South Jakarta, recently.

Several drivers regularly use the Transjakarta lanes, and the city has been seeking ways to crack down.

Jokowi called on all Transjakarta commuters to socially stigmatize motorists who were seen using the lanes.

He hoped that the grassroots movement would help clear the lanes of motorists and in the long-term encourage use of public transportation, such as the Transjakarta, commuter trains and the nascent MRT and monorail projects.

The governor also said he had instructed the Transportation Agency to deploy 40 reserve buses to serve the congested Blok M-Downtown and Cililitan-Pluit routes.

Additionally, Transjakarta would add 50 new buses to its fleet by the end of the month.

'€œNow with the extra buses motorists won'€™t be able to fit into the lanes,'€ he said.

Jokowi also said he had instructed the Transportation Agency to up its professionalism in managing the Transjakarta, since it was a good mode of public transportation in the city. This included imposing stricter standards on bus crew and ticket personnel.

For most bus crew and ticket staff, the working day starts well before the rooster crows.

Hani, a 29-year-old Transjakarta bus ticket seller, usually leaves her house in Depok, West Java, at 3:00 a.m. to make it on time to work at the National Monument (Monas) bus shelter in Central Jakarta.

Hani rides in the early morning cold on a motorcycle taxi (ojek), which she rents for Rp 600,000 (US$52.68) a month. She usually arrives at 4 a.m. and opens the ticket counter at 5 a.m.

'€œI have no problem with my working hours. I am proud of being part of Transjakarta, which serves the needs of thousands of people everyday,'€ she said, adding that she had been working with the company since 2007.

Hani said on Sunday that she usually served 3,000 passengers during weekdays and no fewer than 5,000 passengers on weekends. She said that she always tried to manage her mood so that she could be nice to customers.

'€œThere have been times when passengers will buy their tickets with Rp 50,000 of Rp 100,000 notes, so it will take time to make change, and then they yell at me for being slow,'€ she said.

Titian Pakpahan, 24, who works as a turnstile keeper in the Slipi Petamburan bus shelter along Transjakarta'€™s Corridor IX, which serves Pluit-Pinang Ranti route, said he also has to be patient in the face of pushy customers. '€œThe greatest challenge in this job is to keep my emotions under control,'€ he said.

'€œI always try to stay cool, but there was a day I got angry back at a passenger. That was just not my day. I felt annoyed and I was very hungry at the time,'€ he said.

Titian said that he now ate breakfast first before leaving his house in Rawa Belong, West Jakarta, for work.

'€œI usually work from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. or from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.,'€ he added.

Both Hani and Titian hoped that the company would soon be acquired by the city administration because they believed that it would improve working conditions and their status.

Hani said that if the company were a city-owned enterprise then that would make her a civil servant.

Meanwhile, Titian said that he hoped he could be appointed as a permanent staff member if the city administration acquired the company. He currently works on a one-year contract basis with a possible extension. (koi)

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