| Jokowi’s toughest job: Traffic chaos Bambang Nurbianto ; A Journalist at The Jakarta Post |
JAKARTA POST, 13 Oktober 2012
| Without belittling other problems in the capital, the daily severe traffic jams constitute the most serious challenge that Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama will have to address soon after they are officially inaugurated as the city’s governor and deputy governor. Traffic congestion is the source of daily frustration for more than a million road users. It is also the cause of inefficiency as many people have to spend hours on congested roads, while their vehicles have to burn more fuel. The traffic congestion also contributes more pollutants into the city’s air. Therefore, the Jokowi administration has no choice but to complete his mission to solve this traffic problem. Otherwise, people will say that he is just another governor who has failed to deal with the problem and has only prolonged the misery of road users. The thesis of Jokowi’s transportation policy is very simple: “Traffic gridlock can only be solved by improving public transportation, not by constructing more roads.” He seems to have heeded the advice of former environment minister Emil Salim, who said that constructing more roads would only encourage more people to drive their cars to get around. Therefore, no matter how many roads are built, they‘ll never be enough to meet the increasing number of cars wanting to run on them. At the level of implementation, Jokowi will certainly face great challenges because many parties may be negatively affected by his wish to improve public transportation. The greatest challenge may come from the automotive industry, which is certainly unhappy with Jokowi’s policy, as car sales will threatened if his mission succeeds. Another challenge will come from road developers. Under Fauzi Bowo, the city administration planned to develop six inner-city toll roads worth nearly Rp 44 trillion (US$4.6 billion). With the shift of focus on the transportation policy, Jokowi is expected to revise the plan and use the resources instead to improve public transportation. Private operators and drivers on public transportation vehicles are also unhappy with his policy. They are concerned that the policy will affect their business, although Jokowi has promised to help them improve their services for passengers. Here is what Jokowi is offering. According to Ahok, the new administration plans to deploy 1,000 more buses along the busway corridors within the first year of his five-year term. If the program succeeds, it will be a great leap in the effort to improve the Transjakarta service. A shortage in the number of buses is the main reason why Transjakarta has failed to encourage motorcycle and car users to shift to the busways, as they do not want to have to queue in long lines at bus terminals or shelters. They are also not ready to sweat inside crowded buses. However, neither Jokowi nor Ahok have revealed the details on how they will finance such a project. Will they use taxpayers’ money? Or will they invite investors? Neither option will be easy. If they want to use taxpayers’ money, they have to convince the city councilors, which will be a tough job for them as the two political parties that supported them in the recent election only have 17 out of the total 94 seats on the City Council. Meanwhile, if they want to invite private companies to invest, they will need to convince the business community that the transportation business is profitable or the city administration will have to offer incentives. Outgoing governor Fauzi did not succeed in his attempts, despite trying both options. Jokowi also plans to replace certain busway corridors with special bus lanes in an effort to improve the capacity of the transportation system, but he may need to carry out further feasibility studies before he goes ahead with the plan, particularly if he wants to determine whether the result is worth the amount spent on the project. On the other hand, Jokowi plans to continue with the existing plan of mass rapid transit (MRT) construction and to revive the monorail project that Fauzi stopped after he failed to convince the central government to offer assurances to financial institutions, which were ready to invest in the project. Will Jokowi have a better argument to convince the central government? Another important proposal from Jokowi is his wish to establish a joint transportation authority, which will involve cooperation with the administrations in Jakarta’s neighboring cities — Bekasi, Bogor, Depok and Tangerang. He realizes that Jakarta cannot work alone to solve the congestion problems because more than 600,000 cars and motorcycles head to Jakarta from these satellite cities every day. It is certainly not an easy job to form such a joint authority because each administration has its own plan and its own problems. South Tangerang administration, for example, was forced to halt its bus rapid transit (BRT) project, which was due to be connected to the Jakarta busway system, after it attracted strong opposition from local public transportation operators and drivers. Another measure that Jokowi has planned is to enforce more traffic restrictions — electronic road pricing (ERP), high parking fees and police number-plate restrictions — to curb the use of private vehicles. Like in many other cities, traffic restriction measures are a good way to discourage people from driving their cars for their daily use. However, traffic restrictions will only succeed if Jokowi manages to improve public transportation services, such as reliability, affordability and convenience for passengers. With better public transportation, car owners may opt to leave their cars at home. Most of Jokowi’s traffic improvement strategies have indeed been on Fauzi Bowo’s menu at one time or another. Unfortunately, Fauzi failed to execute his plans before Jakartans took back their mandate. So, what is the difference between Fauzi and Jokowi? At least we still have the hope that Jokowi will be able to keep his promises. Jokowi has often said that to end the city’s traffic chaos is only a matter of execution. He is right, but certainly executing the plan will not be a simple thing. His leadership will face a major test in dealing with other parties with their conflicting interests. ● |