Penang Watch

Watch how Transjakarta beat trafiic jam with the help of bus ways here. Why can't we have the same in Penang and KL?

Ong BK

Transjakarta: an impressionistic evaluation

I visited Jakarta last week and took 2 days to look at the famous Transjakarta bus system which utilize the bus ways to enable the buses to beat traffic jams. This is a small impressionistic evaluation of the bus way system, as practiced for 5 years now in Jakarta, and also in various cities in Indonesia.

The first impression of Transjakarta is that it indeed achieved its stated objectives to beat the traffic jams. Riding on the bus ways is indeed an `enjoyment’ when you look at the cars stuck in the other lanes of the road. There is no quantitative study/estimates of how much the time saving is –but when something like this done I expect the result to be an affirmation of the transport innovation inspired by the South American cities.

The major component of the bus way system are: the buses, the bus stops and the bus ways.

Buses: the buses are specially designed to have 4-panel folding doors on both sides of the buses. The driver can stop the bus twice –first to discharge the passengers, and 2nd, to admit the passengers. That is done when there are many passengers, and help to make coming out and going in the bus faster. The buses’ high floor (about 2 ft/60cm) lead to the bus stops  to be built up to the same level to allow transfer of passengers without crossing different floor levels. Due to this the buses need to be specially designed and ordered.

There are 2 persons running each bus: 1 uniformed driver (dressed in suit and tie) and another uniformed assistant.

The bus has electronic messages spelling out the next destinations-helping those who are hearing impaired. There is also a recorded message accompanying the words that appear in the running electronic display-helping those who are eye-sight impaired. The assistant is trained to provide other incidental support. However not many disabled passengers are seen when I was there-except 1 with eye-sight impairment. No one on wheel chair was seen.

The buses has few seats –with most spaces allocated to standing passengers who pack the bus during peak hours.

The Bus Stop: the elevated bus stops are built to match the floor height of the buses so that passengers can go into the buses without crossing any height hindrance. To go up or down the bus stops to catch the buses there are ramps of very gentle slopes. Since the bus stops are usually built in the middle of the road there are overhead bridges connecting the side of the roads to the middle. This explain why the passengers need to walk down the bus stops rather than walk up to it. To achieve the gentle slopes the ramp are built rather long-2 stretches to go up from the road side and 2 stretches to go down to the middle of the road. Can be a bit of a walk. There is also a lift at the bus stop –located at the middle of the road-but most of them are out of action by now.
In narrower stretch of roads the bus stops are located on 1 side of the roads.

Bus ways: The bus ways are located in the middle of the roads mostly, usually with several lanes. The bus ways are marked by road signs, marking on the road surface, and borders which separate it from other lanes. Only special buses (Transjakarta) are allowed to run on the dedicated bus ways. There are still other buses running in the other lanes and caught up in the traffic jams as other vehicles.

The bus ways are usually tarred –but many stretches are also made of concrete surface-which is a more lasting surface requiring less maintenance. Road maintenance seems to be an issue since I can see many stretches of the bus ways under resurfacing-and that will deprive the Transjakarta buses of a dedicated lane for faster travel.

Bus ways are not continuous –they break at road junctions where the Transjakarta buses have to wait for the traffic lights. There seems to be no tempering of the traffic lights to give more advantage to the Transjakarta buses waiting at the road junctions.

Ridership: While the Transjakarta buses are popular –with the buses usually quite fully packed at peak hours, despite less than 5 min frequencies, there are rooms to improve its ridership from both ends of the socio economic scales: from the richer end it could have provided park-n-ride facilities so that the car users can be encouraged to park their cars outside of city centre and take the Transjakarta. Then from the poorer end the buses not using bus ways are catering to those who would pay less for bus travel, not withstanding the bad conditions of theses buses of various sizes and designs. The flat rate of the Transjakarta-which favour longer distance traveler, may be made more flexible to make it more flexible to short distance travelers. Of course some season tickets can also help in securing more passengers. So typically the Transjakarta passengers are the middle of the road city dwellers –with the bus driver being the most smartly dressed of all in the bus. The bus drivers’ `uniform’ are suit and tie.

The bus fares can be compared to the other modes of transport here:

Transjakarta : 5000.00 Rp (flat rate)
Other big buses : 3000Rp
Smaller buses: 2000Rp
Bajai-converted from small vans: 1500Rp

Other than these there are point-to-point transporters:

Taxis : 5000-6000Rp (starting fares)
Ojets(converted from motorbikes, similar to Tut-tut in Thailand) : Varying, negotiatiable
Motorbikes: varying, negotiable

While there are no feeder bus arrangement the other modes of transports seems to fill in the gap. Usually there are various Ojets and motorbikes waiting at the Transjakarta terminals.
There seems to be no particular surveillance method against intruders into the bus ways except that the Transjakarta drivers would horn loudly at the intruders. Overall there is compliance to the rule that the bus ways are for Transjakarta only.

Accessibility issues: While the bus stops provided very elaborate and gentle ramps there are ways to improve it for accessibility to disabled and non-disabled users. There are some design weaknesses eg some last stretches of the ramp actually require users to go up/down some steps. Of course the lift which could be helpful in the bus stops are all out of action-a serious maintenance issue. Then the gap between the Transjakarta buses and the bus platform, while possible to be aligned in height (some exceptions are noticed), is usually not seamless –leaving a possibly impossible gap of 6”! A ramp from the buses could help-but there is none fitted with it.

On the buses there are signs asking the passengers to give priority to disabled users. Similarly the assistant and also the pre-recorded message also keep reminding the passengers to give priority to disabled passengers. However there are no facilities for wheelchair users on the buses eg there is nothing for wheelchair users to secure themselves in the buses.

No wonder there has not been any wheelchair passengers seen in the entire course of my usage of the Transjakarta.

Promotions: Transjakarta do publish its routes maps in all the bus stops, along with banners of the end-of-month Car-free-day at Jalan Sudirman and another major road. I saw hundreds of youths carrying balls and other gadgets walking towards the main road where the monthly Car-free day was to be held on the Sunday that I was there. Even taxi drivers don’t grumble against it even though they have to go around the blocked roads. They told me that there is some activities on the roads, without explaining what it was all about. A staff at the bus stop entrance was not so enthusiastic to answer my questions about the Transjakarta. Passengers on Transjakarta are not particularly bothered about the Transjakarta-may be the initial enthusiasm for the Transjakarta has worn off. Such coolness may not help Transjakarta to complete its project where it has not yet done eg develop park-n-rides and feeder bus services. 

Small conclusion: The Transjakarta has made a bold start to cater for the commuters in Jakarta, and signs are that residents of other cities are benefiting from the spread of the concept. This is a positive move which can be improved significantly in the areas of bus design, access to the bus stops, access to the buses, fares adjustments, provision of feeder buses, park-n-rides facilities etc. Hope that the authorities can look into these issues to make Transjakarta shine as a major example of public transport innovation in SE Asia!

My short stay did not afford me opportunities to look at other aspects of the bus ways eg connectivity, management, state subsidies,  operation etc. Hope there are chances for that to be done later.

Ong BK
9-6-09