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City struggles to make Transjakarta lanes safer
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A new Transjakarta Scania bus with a lower deck specification is parked at yard of City hall on Oct. 3, 2016. (kompas.com/Kurnia Sari Aziza)
T
he city administration has won kudos recently for expanding the bus rapid transit system (BRT). However, it is still failing to improve its bus safety record, with the number of accidents involving city-owned bus operator PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta) rising over time.
In 2016, City Hall recorded 783 accidents taking place on Transjakarta lanes, an 87 percent increase from the 415 accidents recorded in the previous year.
Despite the increase in the number of accidents, 2016 saw fewer casualties, with five deaths compared with seven in 2015.
The increase is attributed to a number of factors, Masdes Arroufi, a Jakarta Transportation Agency official, said.
Masdes, who heads the agency’s Land Transportation and Railway Department, said the factors included mixed traffic systems, broken roads, a lack of signs at the end of lane separators and reckless driving.
“We are committed to seeing zero accidents but that is virtually impossible to achieve,” he said after a meeting at City Hall.
(Read also: Jakarta unprepared for transportation integration)
The city’s inability to clear lanes dedicated for buses is one of the main causes of the increasing number of accidents. Despite efforts made by the city administration to clear dedicated bus lanes, many private vehicles or other public buses still try to use the lanes to beat the traffic.
“We have installed MCBs [movable concrete barriers] but we need to do some improvements to make them safer for vehicles,” he said.
Masdes said the short-term solution was painting MCBs yellow so that drivers could see them clearly. “We also propose to put traffic cones before the separators so the vehicles will not directly hit the MCBs but hit the cones first. It can lessen the impact,” he said.
The two corridors that recorded the largest number of accidents were corridor 6 serving the Ragunan to Latuharhari route with 120 cases, and corridor 8 serving the Lebak Bulus to Harmoni route with 105 cases. Both routes are notorious for their narrow streets and crowded traffic.
“The lane is narrow. If there are other vehicles like motorcycles or cars, the chance for an accident increases,” he said.
He added that he would ask the police to create a mechanism to fine drivers who enter the lanes based on the pictures of their plate numbers captured by the CCTVs on buses.
“Our buses are equipped with CCTVs at the back and front and so we can capture them,” he said.
The city administration had installed gates in some lanes. The gates are guarded by Transjakarta. “The gates are closed when the buses do not pass. Therefore, many vehicles tail the buses,” he said.
As for accidents caused by Transjakarta drivers, the company has promised to provide more training for its drivers.
“They have also promised to tighten up the requirements,” he said.
Masdes said in order to ensure that Transjakarta performed more effectively, the agency would punish the company if it did not fulfill its minimum service standard (SPM), which includes reducing the number of accidents.
“We could reduce the subsidy,” he said.
Separately, city secretary Saefullah said the city administration would conduct a study to see how to make the bus lanes completely “sterile.” “We are planning to use automatic gates so only BRT buses can pass through the lanes,” he said.
Transjakarta president director Budi Kaliwono said accidents occurred due to many factors that were beyond the control of the company.
Budi said he hoped the police and the Jakarta Transportation Agency could intensify their efforts to improve the lanes so that the number of accidents could fall.
