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Urban life: Commuters happy to spend extra for comfortable trip
After a tiring day at the office, many Jakarta commuters face an arduous journey home on stuffy and jam-packed buses – and some have found a way out for themselves.
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A Royaltrans bus is parked at a Transjakarta bus depot in Cawang, East Jakarta, in January 2019. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)
Endless traffic jams and overcrowded public transportation mean agony for almost everyone commuting to and from Jakarta’s city center.
Commuter trains and metro buses are affordable, but with lots of doubts surrounding their efficiency, many people long for more reliable and comfortable public transportation.
Rizal, 29, is one of them.
The private-sector employee, who works near the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta, was waiting for his transportation one afternoon this week. It was a specific kind of bus that would take him home to Cibubur in East Jakarta. The clean, spacious, air-conditioned bus with unlimited WiFi access, reclining seats and USB power ports was his ultimate choice.
He was standing at the bus stop near the Bundaran HI Transjakarta station for more than 15 minutes, checking his smartphone to see whether the next premium bus would head to his desired destination. While he was waiting, several regular, non-airconditioned buses en route to Cibubur stopped in front of him.
“The regular buses still allow peddlers to get on, and they are sometimes overcrowded. It’s not comfortable for me,” he murmured.
