Prodita Sabarini , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta |  Wed, 06/17/2009 9:52 AM  |  City

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo admitted Tuesday that his administration has yet to provide an adequate public transport system needed to manage Jakarta’s notorious traffic jams.

At city hall on Tuesday, Fauzi said the solution to the capital’s traffic problems was to encourage people to use public transport and leave their private cars or motorcycles at home.

However, Fauzi said that he was currently unable to stipulate regulations that limited the use of private vehicles.

“As I am yet to be able to provide adequate public transport,  I cannot pass regulations that forbid people to use private cars,” he said.

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) has voiced concern over the growing numbers of vehicles in the city.

The ITDP said that if the vehicle growth rate in Jakarta continues to hover around ten percent annually, without any upgrades in public transport and traffic management, the city will be paralyzed by total gridlock by 2014.

Jakarta’s roads are growing, but only by 0.01 percent per year. Entering two years of his tenure, Fauzi’s administration’s efforts to provide public transport is still far from accommodating the public’s needs.

However, the administration has completed the construction of Transjakarta busway lanes 8 and 9, repaired bus stops and busway lanes in corridors 1 to 7, as well as repairing the Transjakarta bus depot in Daan Mogot, West Jakarta — all legacies of former governor Sutiyoso — with a budget of Rp 86.87 billion.

Fauzi had promised to reduce widespread traffic jams by accelerating the construction of busway lanes in the first 100 days of his term after being elected in 2007. However, continued delays in the construction of corridors 8 and 9 have put back the start dates from September 2008 to Febuary 2009.

The city’s best hope of an effective public transport system, the Transjakarta, has suffered operational flaws.

Last Thursday more than a hundred Transjakarta buses on Corridor 4 to Corridor 7 stopped operating for several hours due to a lack of fuel, following a late payment from the Transjakarta busway management body (BLU). The 109 halted buses were operated and supplied by PT Jakarta Trans Metropolitan (JTM) and PT Jakarta Mega Trans (JMT).

Fauzi said projects addressing traffic problems in Jakarta were still being prepared. He said construction of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), which will have 12 stations along the Lebak Bulus-Dukuh Atas route, comprising of eight elevated stations on a 10.5-kilometer stretch of track above ground, and four stations on a 4-kilometer stretch underground, would begin next year.

Japan is providing 48.2 billion yen (US$ 496 million) in loans for the construction of the MRT project scheduled to be completed by 2016.

Meanwhile, Fauzi added that the nation-wide train revitalization project by the state-owned railway company was not scheduled until 2012.

Fauzi said that to address the increasing number of motorbikes in the capital, he would in the future, follow the steps of the administration in Beijing by banning bikes in certain areas in Jakarta

“The direction we’re going for is to ban motorcycles in some areas, such as in Beijing, to reduce the traffic burden,” he said.

Source : The Jakarta Post