Jakarta is today (6/22) celebrating its 485th anniversary. In this age, various vital breakthroughs have been done by Jakarta Provincial Government to overcome Jakarta problems, including traffic jam. Among those breakthroughs are controlling the traffic, public transportations, and other supporting infrastructures, operating TransJakarta buses and TransJakarta Integrated Border Transportation (APTB), as well as building Non Toll Flyovers (JLNT), Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), and Pulogebang Terminal. All of these are efforts to modernize public transportations to make it more convenient and friendlier.
The improvement on transportation sector is not only proven effective to overcome traffic problem in the capital city, but also enjoyed by residents who work in Jakarta but live in surrounding areas, such as Bekasi, Depok, Bogor, Tangerang, etc.
Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said many programs have been launched to parse traffic jam. For instance is by increasing TransJakarta bus services. From 2007 to 2011, 11 corridors have been operated with bus amounted to 554 buses. This is expected could make the citizens and residents of surrounding areas to change preference from using private vehicle to TransJakarta bus. Therefore, the volume of private vehicles entering Jakarta would decrease. In addition, Jakarta Provincial Government has also launched APTB which is currently serving two routes, namely Pulogadung-Bekasi and Kalideres-Tangerang.
“The purpose of all these efforts is nothing but to optimize services in transportation sector and most importantly to decrease traffic problem in Jakarta. TransJakarta bus and APTB are intended to change the preference of residents from using private vehicle to public transport. The volume of TransJakarta passengers alone is increasing. In 2007, the amount of passengers reached 61.43 million. While in 2011, its amount increased to 114.7 million passengers,” stated Fauzi, Friday (6/22).
As for JLNT, it is built to increase the amount of roads. There are two JLNTs which currently being built, they are Kampungmelayu-Tanahabang and Antasari-Blok M. The Kampungmelayu-Tanahabang JLNT is estimated could increase road capacity in that area as much as 40 percent at least. By adding four lanes on the flyover, in total there will be 10 lanes. Therefore, travel time will decrease and vehicle’s speed will increase. However, motorcycle is prohibited to pass over the Kampungmelayu-Tanahabang JLNT and must pass over the road below.
In addition, Jakarta Provincial Government is also currently waiting for the completion of MRT auction process. This is the first step that is taken towards the modernization of public transportation in Jakarta.
Head of Jakarta Transportation Department, Udar Pristono, uttered that the efforts to decrease traffic jam is not only focused on providing TransJakarta bus and APTB and building JLNTs and MRT. There are still many more efforts being worked on by Jakarta Provincial Government to provide convenient for road users. One of them is by implementing traffic engineering at Kuningan-Tegalparang Junction, South Jakarta.
“This policy is proven effective in parsing traffic jam in that area to 30 percent, especially for vehicles that just came out from Tegalparang Toll to Kuningan. Slowly but surely, traffic jam will continuously decreasing,” stated Pristono.
And on Saturday (23/6), Jakarta governor will conduct the soft launching of Pulogebang Bus Terminal in East Jakarta. After the launching, TransJakarta bus corridor XI (Kampungmelayu-Pulogebang), which initially just turned around under Pulogebang flyover, will enter the terminal. Not only that, four trajectory routes of public minivan (angkot) will also enter the terminal to pick up or drop off passengers.