JakartaTraffic:TransportIntegration

[jpatokal]

Interesting quote in the Pakistan article:
Jakarta solved its city traffic problems by a set of innovative and workable laws but then what laws ever applied to us?
While I'm surprised in the first place to hear that Jakarta has solved its traffic problems (why did it take me 1.5 hours to move 3 km last time I was there?), does anybody know what this set of innovative and workable laws is referring to? Jak certainly doesn't have anything in the way of functional public transport and the only parts of the road network that run more or less smoothly seem to be the elevated toll highways...

[GWR]

Metromini driver bears more responsibility than pilot

Kornelius Purba, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A bus driver who has been in the business for 25 years plying the same route in South Jakarta told me Monday a public transportation driver like him faces more responsibility and risk than an airplane pilot, who he described as "just a driver like me".

"Look at the Garuda pilot. He was only grounded by his company although his recklessness cost the lives of 21 passengers," the 47-years-old driver said.

What if he committed a similar fatal mistake as a bus driver?

"A mob would beat me if I was not lucky enough to run away. The police probably would feel guilty for the victims, if they did not torture and extort me. My boss only knows one word: 'fired,'" said the driver.

The driver continued: "When a pilot is killed in an accident, TV will treat him like a hero. Who will care about me if I am killed? The owner of my bus will cry, not for me but for his loss."

He has to deal with extortion attempts several times a time, from the Land Transportation Agency officers who will book him for 1,000 violations if he fails to bribe them at least Rp 5,000 (45 US cents), to the police and even military personnel during the Soeharto era.

According to the Batak driver, not a single airline pilot in Indonesia has been jailed for committing a professional mistake that claimed lives.

The National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) on Monday concluded that Garuda pilot M. Marwoto Komar was to blame for the fatal accident at Yogyakarta's Adi Sucipto Airport on March 7 this year when he ignored 15 warnings sounded by the ground proximity warning system.

The pilot attempted to land the Boeing 737-400 aircraft, which was carrying 133 passengers, two pilots and five flight attendants, with the aircraft's instrument landing system.

Five Australian nationals, who were flying to Yogyakarta for the visit of Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, were among the 21 killed in the accident.

"We'd like them to refer this matter now to a police investigation with a view to possible prosecutions," Downer said Tuesday in reaction to the KNKT's findings.

While in the past Downer has been successful in pressing Indonesia to get tougher in the war against terrorism, this time the Australian minister will likely be disappointed.

Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal was quick to warn the KNKT's findings could not serve as a legal basis for a criminal investigation or as evidence in a court of law.

"Based on ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) regulations, the report cannot be used for liabilities so it cannot be used for a police investigation. The report only served the purpose of preventing of future incidents or accidents," Reuters quoted the minister as saying Monday.

It means that at most the pilot will lose his job, but he will remain free from police investigation and extortion (using the bus driver's term).

As a very ordinary citizen and with limited intellectual capacity -- according to my math teachers -- it is difficult for me to understand why a pilot cannot be prosecuted for the same type a fatal mistake that would see a bus driver tossed in jail, if he made it past the mob. Why can't the law touch someone responsible for the death of passengers?

The number of airplane accidents in the country has increased sharply in the last several years, following an explosion in the number of low-cost carriers.

But Monday was the first time the KNKT announced the details of its findings on an air accident when it delivered its verdict on the Garuda pilot. In many cases the government simply announced an air crash investigation would take a long time to complete until people forgot about the accident, only remembering after another tragedy had occurred.

On Jan. 1, 2007, an Adam Air Boeing 737-400 crashed and went missing in the waters off Sulawesi. All 102 passengers and crew members on board died in the accident. Only after nine months was the plane's black box recovered.

In September 2005, a Boeing 737-200 belonging to Mandala Airlines crashed as it took off from Polonia Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, killing 94 passengers and five crew members on board, and 51 people in the residential area the plane plowed into.

There has never been a comprehensive explanation offered for either accident. Rumors did circulate that the Mandala aircraft was overloaded with durians.

The behavior of pilots reportedly is often not very different from that of the notorious public transportation drivers in Jakarta.

Anyway, if you ask me if I have any concrete solutions to eliminate or at least minimize air accidents in the future, my answer is: No. Even if you ask Minister Jusman, most likely he would be unable to give a better answer. However as an Indonesian, who is always supposed to be religious, I can give a religious answer: Pray more!

The writer can be reached at purba@thejakartapost.com.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20071024.A08&irec=7

[GWR]

City explores ERP traffic system

Mustaqim Adammrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta is being urged to follow the lead of cities like London, Stockholm and Singapore in introducing an electronic road pricing (ERP) system to ease chronic traffic congestion.

Budi Kuntjoro of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and Darmaningtyas of the Transportation Institute (Intrans) said an ERP system would be effective in reducing Jakarta's notorious traffic.

Budi, a transportation expert and the project director at the ITDP, praised administration plans to introduce ERP.

"It's time for the administration to work on reducing traffic chaos by limiting and controlling the use of private vehicles instead of expanding the roads.

"There will never be enough roads to accommodate all the cars, even if they are continuously expanded," he said.

The city administration is making other, largely unsuccessful, attempts to ease traffic, including opening busway lanes to motorists during peak travel times.

On Tuesday, the second day motorists were allowed onto busway lanes, there was little visible difference in the traffic.

Erlangga Rismantojo, who drove along Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said through to Jl. Mampang in South Jakarta, said traffic was just as bad despite the new policy.

Budi said ERP was one solution for dealing with chronic traffic congestion and preventing the capital from coming to total gridlock by 2014.

Under the ERP system, motorists would be charged for using Jakarta's main thoroughfares.

Private vehicles account for 98 percent of all vehicles on the capital's roads, but they only transport half of all passengers, said Budi.

Darmaningtyas agreed Jakarta needed ERP, however, he questioned whether now was the right time to introduce the system.

"I believe the administration will eventually be able to implement the system, but not in a rush," he said.

He said implementing ERP would take time because the administration needed to lobby the Finance Ministry to issue the necessary regulations that would allow it to collect fees from motorists.

"On top of that, the administration will need a great deal of money," he said.

Singapore, he said, required at least Rp 6 trillion (US$654 million) for the procurement, preparation and operation of its ERP system.

Jakarta Transportation Agency deputy head Udar Pristono said the agency would complete its feasibility study for the ERP system by the end of this year, which is itself expected to cost Rp 1 trillion, Warta Kota newspaper reported Tuesday.

Darmaningtyas said the administration should first focus on optimizing the operations of all 10 busway corridors, including the three still under construction, before moving to the ERP project.

Sharing Darmaningtyas' opinion, the deputy chairman of the City Council's Commission D on development, Mukhayar, said the right time for the administration to implement the ERP system "is when all public transportation modes are giving good and decent service".

"The right time also depends on the availability of mass rapid transportation modes," he said.

The ERP system, he said, can only be applied on roads where "decent" public transportation is available.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20071114.@01&irec=0

[jpatokal]

Punitive road pricing only works when there is an alternative to driving your own car, and in Jakarta there really isn't.

But it's better than the latest harebrained scheme implemented this Monday, which allowed regular vehicles to use the dedicated BRT lanes during rush hour. The results were predictable: the BRT slowed to a crawl, but there was no visible improvement to the jams. It was supposed to be a month-long trial, but it looks like it'll be scrapped within a week...

On the upside, the BRT does work pretty well when there are no cars in the way. Thamrin/Sudirman (Jakarta's Sukhumvit) were completely jammed yesterday evening, but I zipped past in a BRT bus in no time at all.

[Yappofloyd]

^ It would be good that the stupid trial to allow vehicles to use BRT during rush hour gets dumped by the end of the week.

ERP won't get a runner in Jakarta. The article should start with; Jakartans could breathe if they had a MRT and LRT to complement the BRT in a proper intergrated network.

No new laws on car use in Jakarta: Governor The Jakarta Post, Jakarta 16/11/07
Jakartans can breathe a sigh of relief as they will be able to continue using their cars and motorcycles freely until the construction of infrastructure related to the mass rapid transportation system has been completed. Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said Thursday the city administration had decided not to issue any new bylaws regarding the use of private vehicles.

"Fauzi, the governor, believes it would be unwise to pass these types of laws before a suitable transportation system was in place for the public," Fauzi said, referring to himself in the third person. "A good policy implemented at the wrong time would not be effective," he added. Fauzi made the statement after attending a meeting about the city's traffic management problems with legislators from the House of Representatives' Commission V overseeing transportation, telecommunications and people's housing affairs.

Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Adang Firman and the Transportation Ministry's director general for land transportation Iskandar Abubakar also attended the meeting. The officials were invited to attend the meeting by House members eager to discuss what was being done to ease traffic congestion in the city.

Traffic jams are a major problem in Jakarta, with experts predicting the number of vehicles in the city will exceed available road space by 2014. The total length of Jakarta's roads is 27,000 kilometers. The city's roads increase in length by 2 percent on average every year. In contrast to these figures, there are currently 5.5 million registered vehicles in Jakarta. During the last five years, the number of cars on Jakarta's roads has increased by 95 percent each year. This month the city has been hit by widespread traffic congestion caused by the construction of several new busway corridors.

Fauzi said the city administration was still evaluating limitation policies on the use of private vehicles, such as progressive tax laws on private cars or Electronic Road Pricing (ERP). Progressive tax laws on private cars would mean families had to pay additional fees for every extra vehicle they purchased. Fauzi said Jakarta formulated a gubernatorial decree relating to progressive tax in 1996 but it had not been implemented. The city administration is currently reconsidering the option.

Under ERP systems, car and motorcycle users pay tolls when they pass certain roads. How much road users pay depends on how busy the stretch of road they are using is. Under the system, vehicles are tracked by pre-installed electronic devices. Another possible solution to Jakarta's traffic woes could be the introduction of an odd and even number plate system, as is used in Bogota, Columbia.

Under such a system, cars with odd number plates can be used on certain days, while those with even number plates can be used on all other days. "We plan to introduce new policies in the future, but ... timing is crucially important," Fauzi said. "However, we won't be standing around doing nothing while we wait for the right time to introduce a new system. We'll keep on working to make sure the system we choose is the right one." (anw)

[GWR]

Integrated train-busway system proposed
Mustaqim Adamrah , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 06/24/2008 10:01

With each passing day, commuters in Jakarta get ever closer to one another. And traffic congestion continues to deteriorate to levels approaching total gridlock.

With a population of approximately 10 million, Jakarta ranks as one of 16 Asian metropolises -- up from only seven in 1950 -- and one of 30 global metropolises, according to the Indonesian Transportation Society's Bambang Susantono.

The capital, like other megacities, tells the same tale of daily traffic jams that are the combined results of rapid vehicle growth, minimal road expansion and mismanagement of the public transportation system, Susantono said.

In 1995, there were approximately 90 cars for every 1,000 people and approximately 80 kilometers of freeway. By comparison, New York had 400 cars for every 1,000 people and 2,186 kilometers of freeway, he said.

"Both cities have chronic traffic jams," he told The Jakarta Post recently.

He said decades of studies had shown a rail-based transportation system was vital to a densely populated city with high rates of commuter activity, regardless of the high implementation cost to a developing country like Indonesia.

"A comprehensive railway system is already in place, traversing most of the greater Jakarta area. We just need to make the best use of it," he said.

He stressed the government and administrations that made up Greater Jakarta needed to cooperate to maximize existing railways in the area and to make those railways serve as feeders for commuters to reach the heart of the capital.

Commuters from Jakarta's outskirts could use the capital's blue line railway system - also known as the circle line - to travel to other points within the city, he said.

Revived last December after two decades of inactivity, the blue line begins and ends at Manggarai station in South Jakarta, stopping by 13 other stations on it's circuitous route, including Dukuh Atas station in Central Jakarta.

"The blue line should help commuters travel to other places within Jakarta when they arrive, for instance, at Dukuh Atas," Susantono said.

Dukuh Atas station is a future transit hub for various transportation systems, including the blue line railway system, the electric train system, the bus rapid transit (BRT) system, the mass rapid transit (MRT) system, the monorail system and the waterway system.

Susantono said the blue line railway needed an upgrade to attract more commuters.

"The blue line trains only run in a clockwise direction. Double tracks should be laid so a counterclockwise route can be run at the same time. And the frequency of the trains needs to be increased," he said.

He called on authorities to develop a double track rail system to separate commuter trains and inter-city trains.

"Railways must be built connecting Cikarang, east of Jakarta, where many factories are located, to Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta to facilitate smoother logistics for manufacturers," he said.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said his administration was dedicated to setting up a comprehensive railway network to help ease traffic and transportation problems.

The city administration and Transportation Ministry are currently working on a number of railway projects in the capital.

Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal has asked Fauzi to expedite land acquisitions for some of the projects, including for a double track railway system.

The ministry needs to free up 13,000 square meters of land between Klender, East Jakarta, and Bekasi, east of Jakarta. The entire double track project will require 140,000 square meters of land to be freed up, Wendy Aritenang, the ministry's director general for railway transportation, said.

The project will cost Rp 3 trillion (US$322.58 million), and will connect Jatinegara in East Jakarta to Bekasi by 2012, he said.

The ministry also plans to revive a railway system that will provide direct access to Tanjung Priok port.

For this project, the ministry still needs to reclaim 6,000 square meters of a total of 20,000 square meters of land required, Wendy said.

The ministry is also developing a railway system to connect Manggarai station with Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. The railway will also pass through Dukuh Atas and is expected to cost Rp 2 trillion.

Bambang Pujantiyo from the City Transportation Council warned railways would only solve part of Jakarta's transportation problems, and integration of all transportation systems was necessary to tackle the issue in the long term.

"Jakarta's transportation systems are all over the place. Railways, the BRT system, the planned MRT system and other transportation systems overlap each other," he told the Post.

"Those transportation systems need to be integrated to be as efficient as possible."

However, Fauzi said his administration would only begin the integration process after the launch of the MRT system in 2015.

Pujantiyo said having the blue line up and running was an indication the city was on the right track and could begin integrating the blue line with the BRT system, more popularly known as the busway.

He said the line needed to be developed into a major railway system for commuters from Greater Jakarta to reach other places in the capital.

"Commuters from outside Jakarta can use Greater Jakarta trains to get here, and then use the blue line to travel to other points within the city," he said.

He said the next step for the administration was to link train stations with busways in a route running parallel to the blue line.

"One of the main weaknesses of the city's transportation system is the lack of access between train stations," he said.

He said if all stations served by the blue line and Greater Jakarta rail networks were also connected by the BRT, the resulting network would form a "spiderweb" system.

"It's very common to see cities implement a concept in which a circular line connects several key stations, from which other railways radiate out," Pujantiyo said.

He criticized the administration for building the BRT system first rather than a rail-based system, but said the implementation of the spiderweb system could still prove effective.

"The administration should relocate existing busway shelters closer to train stations and place future busway shelters similarly," he said.

"That's a lot cheaper and easier than relocating a train station."
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/06/24/integrated-trainbusway-system-proposed.html

[Yappofloyd]

Better late than never, an intergrated Planning & Transport Management Framework to cover the areas outside Jakarta city limits. Given estimates that the city of 10 million has nearly the same number of people travelling in and out of Jakarta every day such co-ordination of planning regimes is fundamental.

New decree allows greater possibilities for city commuters Tifa Asrianti , The Jakarta Post 01/09/08
The recently issued presidential decree on spatial planning in the capital and surrounding areas allows for the development of other modes of mass transit, an expert says, to provide millions of commuters with more options.

Bambang Susantono of the Indonesian Transportation Society on Sunday told The Jakarta Post the decree "would allow the monorail, mass rapid transit (MRT) system and busway networks to expand into surrounding cities". Bambang added that, "the administrations could share the costs of the expansion." Until now, Jakarta administration has only been able to develop transportation systems within its administrative territory, even though each day the capital sees millions of commuters from neighboring cities.

Such commuters have so far relied on trains (the services of state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api), private vehicles and public buses traversing toll roads. The decree, issued Aug. 12, 2008 by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, sets new regulations for spatial planning in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, Puncak and Cianjur (Jabodetabekpunjur). Bambang said the decree could serve as the legal basis for the Jabodetabek transportation master plan which was already being discussed. "The discussions will cover a revision of the 2004 integrated transportation master plan (SITRAMP). The revision, made possible by JICA, will add transportation elements not previously included, such as the busway and monorail."

The revised master plan, Bambang added, would be signed by all heads of administrations concerned, such as the regents of Tangerang and Bekasi. Article 15 of the new decree sets out laws for the development of mass transit systems to connect Jakarta and surrounding areas. It also stipulates that the administrations should improve the railway network in certain areas to serve commuters better. Bambang said the administration should focus on commuter train services connecting with the inner city transport system, such as the busway.

He said the railway network expansion was possible under the amended Railway Law -- which stipulates that private and local administrations could develop the railway network. "The decree will push neighboring regions to develop bus feeder systems and train stations for commuters," he said. Bambang cited the case of residential developers in Bintaro and Serpong who planned to construct a railway link to Jakarta. The train would stop at Dukuh Atas station. The developers also planned a shuttle bus service to take passengers from the station to Sudirman and Mega Kuningan (both in the central business district).

Besides regulating transportation, it also sets out regulations for water supply, sewage, flood controls, garbage management, telecommunication networks and electricity. The decree also has a provision for conservation areas in Jabodetabekpunjur. The new decree will be valid for 20 years and will be assessed every five years. Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said his administration was taking inspiration from neighboring administrations. "It will take some time before this is fully implemented. I'm glad the decree has finally been issued. I hope we can implement it consistently," he said.

A similar response was heard from Deputy Governor Prijanto who said the new regulations would unite development in Jakarta and its greater areas, including the revitalization of Ciawi dam to provide clean water as well as flood controls. "I hadn't heard about the issuance of the decree. For me, it's a good sign to start working together with adjacent regions, especially in spatial planning," he said.