RE-THINKING JAKARTA PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF JAKARTA, INDONESIA AND CURITIBA, BRAZIL ON BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM

Abstract

With immediate population reached 9 million inhabitants, and extended metropolitan population around 23,6 million inhabitants, Jakarta, without any convenient and government full-controlled public transport, is looking for a solution of good public transport system. On 2004, under Governor Sutiyoso (1997-2004), State Government of Jakarta released an integrated plan for Jakarta future transport system. The plan is called Jakarta Mass Transit System (JMaTS). This plan combined multimodal transit systems including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Subway Train – Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), Monorail, and Waterways system. Bus Rapid Transit system (Jakarta’s BRT; also known as Jakarta’s Busway or Transjakarta) started to operate on February 2004. Currently, 7 corridors of Transjakarta are in operation, 3 corridors are under construction, and another 5 corridors are planned to be finished on 2015. By doing macro analysis of total 15 corridors that planned, this research observed that the efficiency of the system is low. It is found that the plan has shown some overlapping that causes inefficient payment, as government pays on kilometer-basis to private operators. The confusions came up from user point of view as the planned corridors became complicated. On the other hands, the planning of the system is not fully maximized on potential existing resources that Jakarta already had. The future integration of many modes of transport seemed to be too ambitious, without really considering the fact that Jakarta still have numbers of problem such as flood. This research paper is trying to re-think about Jakarta’s future transport system, by looking at the fact of Jakarta had some potential critical existing capital. The existing capitals are observed to be maximally used to improve system’s performance. The paper is to open up thoughts in all the stakeholders of an improvement opportunity based on the existing system – not a totally new build up system that often causes a problem. As it is based on the existing capitals that Jakarta has already had, this recommendations offers a potential in cost saving, as well as an easier implementation.