REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, By Andi Abdussalam

JAKARTA -- The Jakarta government has banned its employees from using private and official vehicles, requesting them to switch to public transportation and encouraging the public to emulate them so that the traffic congestion can be eased.

Jakarta is one of the cities with the worst traffic jams in the world and has launched several programs to overcome its traffic woes.

The problem persists despite the Jakarta regional government launching a three-in-one policy in 1994, a car-free day measure in 2002, and a Busway system in 2004.

Recently, the programs include the construction of the monorail transportation system and a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT).

However, the work on these programs is still on-going. The regional government expects that by the year 2030, Jakarta will be able to completely overcome its daily traffic jam problems.

When Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, was elected as the Jakarta governor in September 2012, he laid out three steps to resolve the city's traffic congestion.

The first was to build a traffic safety culture by improving the behavior of motorists. The second was the construction of adequate mass transportation systems, and the third was the implementation of policies that support his programs.

While the regional government awaits the completion of various transport infrastructure projects in Jakarta, it is taking a crash course to help resolve the traffic congestion.

It has banned its government employees from using private and official vehicles, urging them to switch to public transportation. It is also procuring about four thousand buses to improve the means of public transport in the capital city.

"The ban is intended to make employees accustomed to using public transportation and encourage the public to forego the use of private vehicles by switching to public transportation," Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known as Ahok, remarked on Friday last week.

The Jakarta regional government's new policy is contained in the Gubernatorial Instruction Number 150/2013 on the use of public transportation by civil servants and city officials of the Jakarta regional government.

The instruction for the Jakarta regional government employees to abandon private vehicles was signed by Joko Widodo on December 30, 2013, and has become effective since January 3, 2014.

Basuki emphasized that the step was an effective strategy to encourage people to use public transportation while the delivery of the newly procured public transportation vehicles is awaited.

"We cannot say with certainty whether this step will be effective in reducing the use of private vehicles, as it is still too early to judge," Basuki noted.

In order to support the public transportation program, the local government is procuring four thousand additional buses.

According to Jokowi, the procurement of four thousand vehicles for public transportation is expected to help ease the traffic jam issues in the capital city.

"We want to overcome the traffic congestion problem. We have faced traffic jams for several decades. We have applied a Busway system since the past eight years. So far, only about 10 to 20 vehicles are procured every year. This issue can be resolved by buying four thousand vehicles," stated Joko Widodo at the City Hall on Wednesday.

Jokowi claimed that the procurement of four thousand vehicles for public transportation will comprise three thousand medium-sized buses and one thousand buses for the Transjakarta Busway.

"A total of three thousand medium-sized buses and one thousand other buses for the Transjakarta Busway will solve the problem we are facing. We need to focus on the issue in order to resolve it," he added.

According to data revealed by the Indonesian Transportation Community (MTI) organization, a couple of years ago, the state of public transport in Jakarta was inadequate and approximately 72.34 percent of the 22 thousand buses operating in the city were already old and no longer fit for operations.

With a population of about 12 million, Jakarta experiences massive traffic jams on a daily basis. Inadequate public transportation forces the residents to use their private cars or motorcycles. According to the Jakarta Regional Police, there are about 3.1 million private cars and 8.2 million motorcycles in the city.

Data received from the Jakarta Transportation Service revealed that in 2002, about 61 percent of Jakarta's commuters still used public transport, but the figure dropped to 20 percent by 2010.

This clearly indicates that the number of buses should be increased. According to the MTI, Jakarta requires some 20 to 30 thousand additional buses and a funding of Rp30 trillion to meet its requirements.

Therefore, Jokowi's agenda to procure four thousand new buses is not an overstatement and should be focused and measurable.

Jokowi clarified that the regional Jakarta government's program should be focused and measurable with the right target and direction, so that people can eventually benefit from the program.

"I can just purchase ten or twenty buses, like it has been done in the past. But, will that produce the required result? Also, every year around 10 and 20 buses are damaged," he explained.

The governor apparently made the remarks in response to a criticism made about his new policy.

Taufik Azhar, a member of Jakarta Legislative Assembly (DPRD)'s Commission B on transportation, had earlier condemned the Jakarta regional government's policy with regard to the procurement plan to purchase four thousand buses for public transportation and labeled it a hasty policy.

"The procurement of such buses should be ideally carried out in stages, not all at once. For instance, 200 buses in sixth months and so on," he explained.

Yet, the regional government is determined to go ahead with the program. After all, the city employees have been banned from using private and official vehicles. This can hamper the activities of the civil servants at office if public transportation buses are not in adequate numbers.

"We are keen to see the civil servants at the Jakarta regional government adhere to the instruction. We still have to evaluate the implementation of the policy with regard to sanctions, as admittedly, the means of public transportation in Jakarta are inadequate," Basuki emphasized.

The governor's instruction necessitates all officials and employees to use public transportation whenever they go to office. They are not allowed to use private vehicles, two or four-wheeled private vehicles, which includes official vehicles.

All the programs are basically intended to support other steps in curtailing the recurrent traffic jams in Jakarta, which is expected to resolve by 2030.

The regional government has set a target to make Jakarta a traffic congestion-free city by 2030.

"Our target is to free Jakarta from traffic woes by 2030, through the development and implementation of several mass transportation infrastructure projects," Gamal Sinurat, the head of Jakarta's Spatial Master Plan Service, recently stated.

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