Public Transport and The Traffic Jams

Public Transport and The Traffic Jams

Nowadays, the Jakartans seem to become more “familiar” with the traffic jams because it is still a difficult problem to resolve. It is like there is no Jakarta without traffic jam. A lot of traffic jams happen everywhere. Hundreds or even millions of car, bus, and motorcycle fill every street of Jakarta. Even, the Transportation Agency of DKI Jakarta noted that there are 46 areas with more than a hundred points of jams in Jakarta. Ancol, Kalimalang, Mampang, Roxi, Pondok Indah, and Cengkareng are some of them. What a problem! Traffic jams really affect Jakartans not only physically (i.e having special role in determining the face of Jakarta); but also mentally, for it can increase stress or other uncontrolled behaviours of the citizens. Why does this happen? The unwillingness of Jakartans to use public transports, the rapid growth of new cars’ number, and the unoptimal busway could be the answer to that.

The unwillingness to use public transports may not be the root of the problem, but it is the first cause that leads to other causes. Now, it is important to see what makes people do not want to use public transport. Why they choose to use their own vehicle? Kompas’ polling on 27 September 2007 mentioned that people do not want to use public transport because of the bad condition of the transports. It was said that there was less safety and comfort. This thought makes people prefer to use their own car than public transports. Besides, using private cars mean higher prestige. This kind of assumption makes people more reluctant to use public transports. So, from this point of view it is true that using private car is more comfortable. But, to solve the traffic jams is not enough depending on the comfortable or uncomfortable condition of the vehicles. I mean, if we choose the comfortable one only, of course we will choose private cars. It is more private, faster, and we do not need to share places with the strangers. Being comfortable with ourselves, that is the point. But, it must be more than that. The matter is how to create a comfortable condition not just for ourselves but for everybody. If others feel the comfort (i.e no more jams in Jakarta), automatically it will affect us; for less jams are our shared dreams. John Whitteleg in his book Sustainable Future compared the space needed when people use bus and when they use cars. For 60 passengers, we need a bus or at least 8 cars. By using a bus, each passenger needs 0,75 meter square of the street, while that of a car needs 3.3 meter square. From this comparison, we know which one is more efficient in using the street. A bus and its passengers is more efficient. Therefore, we need to encourage people to use public transport.

The phenomenon that each day there are more than a hundred new cars appear in Jakarta’s streets comes as the second cause. This means that day by day, the number of vehicles that fill the highways increases continually. We haven’t counted the motorcycles. So, if the number of cars does not equal with the rise of the development of new highway’s; more traffic jams will be the result. What makes this phenomenon happen? We can say that advertising plays a central role. The power of advertising involves many things, including this phenomenon. The power of advertising is supported by the consumptive mentality of most of the Indonesian. In fact, we often meet people who are not satisfied with only one car. But, out of that, it is true that the power of advertising is so big, seizing people from their freedom. This second cause can not be separated from the first one. The unwillingness to use public transport and the rapid growth of new cars’ number are closely connected and they seem to create the awful condition of Jakarta’s traffic flow.

The ineffective busway become the last reason why there is still traffic jams. Based on the blueprint of the future Jakarta Transports, there will be four kinds of mass transport, i.e monorail, subway train, canal boats, and busway. Until now, only busway that has been accomplished. The other dreams? Zero. The busway itself has not been perfect yet. From 14 corridors, only half are finished. In its launching, there are expectations that Transjakarta can at least decrease the ratio of the traffic jams. But, until this time; the realization is far away. The most influencing factor is that the unit of Transjakarta is limited. The number of the bus does not meet with the number of the passengers. As the result, the passengers often wait too long for the shuttle in the bus stop. In this case, the customers complain that the service is not good enough. While the direct effect for the jams itself is that the Transjakarta decreases almost half of the highways’ width. With more cars in the street, you can imagine how it becomes. The unoptimal condition of Transjakarta has not answered the problem yet; it even raises a new problem since it decreases the width of the highways.

So, there are three reasons that bring about traffic jam in Jakarta: the unwillingness to use public transports, the rapid growth of new cars’ number, and the ineffective busway, that affect one another. There is a correlation between traffic jams and the less desire to use public transport, which is supported by other factors. Despite the bad condition of the public transports, it is high time for us to prove our capacity in solving the problem. How? In my opinion, we must begin to try and adapt ourselves to use public transport. At the meantime, the government should improve and optimize the quality of the public transports. I am sure that there will be no time for Jakarta to be free from the traffic jams, unless the people dare to use public transports and leave using private cars more often.