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akartans are in a wait-and-see mood in regard to the Jakarta administration’s plan to develop park-and-ride facilities in the capital city as it puts high hopes on an integrated public transportation system.

The Jakarta Transportation Agency recently announced plans to build park-and-ride facilities in three areas next year in a bid to discourage people from using private vehicles. The facilities allow commuters to park their vehicles in parking lots, so they can walk to nearby terminals or stations and continue the rest of their journey with public transportation.

The three areas where the facilities will be built next year are Kampung Rambutan bus terminal in East Jakarta, which will accommodate 80 cars and 120 motorcycles, Kalideres bus terminal in West Jakarta with 100 cars and 300 motorcycles and Lebak Bulus terminal in South Jakarta.

“We have allocated funds to build park-and-ride facilities in Kampung Rambutan and Kalideres bus terminals,” the agency’s acting head, Sigit Widjatmoko, said recently as reported by kompas.com.

No details have been provided on their construction.

The plan comes following the Jakarta administration’s announcement to raise parking fees. Both plans aim to encourage Jakartans to switch to public transportation as the MRT Jakarta and light rail transit (LRT) are scheduled to begin operations next year.

So far, the administration has built a number of park-and-ride facilities in collaboration with other offices, such as in Ragunan in South Jakarta, PGC Cililitan in East Jakarta and MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta, in which cars are charged flat tariff of Rp 5,000 (34 US cents) and motorcycles Rp 2,000 for a full day.

However, the plan was met with mixed reactions from private commuters. Dania Assegaf, 23, who drives her car from her home in Cawang, East Jakarta, to her office in Central Jakarta, said the facilities, though helpful, would not encourage her to switch to public transportation.

“It depends on the quality of the transportation system. If it is worth it, I will park my car and use it. But as I see it now, the system still needs much improvement, starting from the small number of tapping machines to [train] cars available for use,” she said.

A similar sentiment was shared by Teguh, 34, who drives his car from his home in Ciputat, South Tangerang, Banten, to his office in Central Jakarta. Teguh said the facilities might only help those whose offices are within walking distance from stations or terminals.

“In my case, I will have to take another means of transportation before I could reach my office, which means a longer travel time,” he said, while hoping that the integration of transportation modes could be improved instead, including those in satellite cities.

Data released by the Greater Jakarta Transportation Agency in 2015 showed that half of the 47.5 million trips in the city came from Greater Jakarta, with 75 percent using motorcycles and 23 percent using private cars.

According to Yoga Adiwinarto, Indonesia country director of United States-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy), the Jakarta administration should focus on leveraging areas covered by the public transportation, rather than build parking spaces.

Park-and-ride facilities, he said, were not necessary if the transportation system covered more areas and longer routes. Therefore, people will not need to use their vehicles to get to stations or bus terminals, he added.

“It is better now to focus on adding more networks or using existing modes to reach these blank spots,” he said, referring to areas that do not have easy access to public transportation modes.

If the plan to build the facilities proceeds, Yoga suggested that commuters who park their vehicles and ride the public transportation also be given an integrated tariff. (ars)