Urban Transportation in Jakarta: Balancing Supply and Demand

In a country where traffic congestion is considered a normal view, one may wish to have an integrated transportation system. While the strategy of creating urban transportation systems remains important, there are many contributing factors that should be taken into consideration to tackle the traffic problem. Jakarta, being one of the metropolitan cities in the Southeast Asia region, is no exception. As cited from the Jakarta Post earlier this year, President Joko Widodo presented data based on National Development Planning (Bappenas) reporting that in Jakarta, the traffic congestion costs the government Rp65 trillion annually. However, the need to create an integrated urban transportation system is not merely to resolve the traffic congestion alone. Other benefits or urban transportation are such as reducing air pollution, creation of more potential jobs in the transportation sector, saving more money, and increasing mobility—to name a few.

Transport expert of PT SMI, Ary Hafiandi highlighted a case in Jakarta as an example where the private vehicles ownership is undoubtedly high, partly stems from the fact that the transportation structure in the city is poor, not to mention the imbalance between supply and demand for transportation services and the integration of public transport modes in Jakarta is still unreliable. As a result, many commuters tend to choose private vehicles over public transportation modes. Not only that, in many cities in developing countries, high population density and rising motorcycle ownership also contribute to severe traffic congestion; these factors also negatively impact productivity, environmental quality due to carbon emissions, waste of time and fuel, as well as economic growth.

The Supply Side

Jakarta needs an immediate response as to how to tackle protracted urban issues such as traffic density and high population mobility. “Thus, undoubtedly; government-initiated effective, safe, comfortable, and affordable modes of mass transportation supported by policy to limit the use of private vehicles is a solution that Jakartans have been hoping for”, Hafiandi explained. Furthermore, according to Hafiandi, three of many possible alternative means to fulfill the need of reliable urban transportation are Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT). “These modes of transportation cover all requirements we need in an ideal mode of transportation; affordable, safe, saving travel time and comfortable. This means we can create more demand and attract more people or commuters from private vehicles to urban public transport. All in all, when it comes to development, we should start to pay more attention to transportation sector as its growth is in line with other development sectors such as trade, industry, finance, and services”, Hafiandi clarified. In selecting the most suitable choices of urban mass transits, “We must also consider some factors like socio-economic development and traffic patterns, and for Jakartans, the MRT has great potential in letting the people to experience a reliable urban transportation system”, he continued.

The Demand Side

Being one of the highlights from the discussion with Ary Hafiandi, increasing the demand for urban transportation is a further step to think about. Hafiandi stimulated us with a question, “Having reliable urban transportation modes is not the end of the problem. Because then, how about the demand side?” One of solutions to increase demand for urban transport is by connecting the mobility demand for people to commute from one place to another with comfortable mass transportation within Metropolitan or urban area; this can be done by creating Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Based on the World Bank, TOD is defined as a planning and design strategy for urban areas that focuses in creating compact, pedestrian-oriented, bicycle-friendly, walkable, and mixed-use areas nearby the mass transit systems so that any other developments in the area such as housing, amenities, public services can support the utilization of urban transport. “When the city is less chaotic, it is not only the urban transport system that reaps the benefit; because when we discuss about TOD, we discuss about the whole urban planning. Imagine we live our day-to-day life without any dependence on our private cars, with less polluted air, walkable neighborhoods that make us easy to get to the shopping centers and other services. This is the point of developing TODs”, he added. Just like setting the strategy for the supply side of urban transport, developing TOD also requires a strategic policy framework, careful planning, and public-private funding mechanism.

One of essential infrastructure policy issues for Jakarta and other fast-growing cities in Indonesia is how to provide justification to increase fiscal income through the concept of land value capture, where the property value can grow due to the betterment of access and services from the existence of TOD.

Recommendations

Bringing the supply and demand sides of urban transport altogether, there are some principles to be fulfilled by the government in creating effective, safe, comfortable, and affordable urban transportation modes, namely:

1. Integrated Urban Mobility Plan

Shrivastava and O’Mahony (2010) agree that public and private transport systems have been growing and developing separately. Since it possesses multi-faceted challenges, cities need to address this mobility issue with a more integrated approach by coordinating related urban policies that involve multiple stakeholders such as government authorities including political decision-makers, private sectors, transport operators, organizing authorities, etc; as well as incorporating all urban transportation modes into one solid mobility plan and operation program. This way, the government can observe, map, and monitor the available transportation resources and mobility.

2. Initiating Strategic Policy Frameworks

Balancing supply and demand sides of urban transport means providing both sides with supporting policies. While to promote the supply side, the government may attempt to initiate Framework for a National Urban Transport Support Program for Indonesia to accommodate any possible constraints regarding the implementation of urban transport systems at sub-national level. “Not only that, ideally the framework should be applicable to other Indonesia’s metropolitan cities, not only Jakarta, and help the cities in planning related projects, obtaining municipal resources such as bond issuance, arranging PPP works, capacity building programs to support the implementation and operation of the transport systems,” Hafiandi said.

While for the demand side, strategic policy frameworks can be addressed to establishing TOD in city areas. Hafiandi argued, “In this case, the types of policy frameworks should be the ones that first, foreseeing where TOD areas should be developed according to the density and types of available transportation modes; second, we also need a strategic policy framework that integrate city centers with a transit base.”

3. Transportation Authority Agency

Indonesia, whose mass transit systems are currently being developed in some parts of the country, ideally has one body—be it a part of government system or work closely with the national and regional governments, to coordinate and develop transportation policy for the country. Hafiandi took an example of New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), “While it is quite unfair to compare Jakarta and its surrounding urban agglomerations (namely Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi) with a city with a more highly-developed transportation system like New York, but it is good to take the lesson that our future Transportation Authority Agency can work with similar responsibilities as NYSDOT has; such as mapping out and keeping current a long-range, help related government body in establishing urban mobility plan especially to balance and stabilize the development of private and public commuter and general transportation-related amenities.”

4. Blended Financing Scheme

As to conclude the interview, Hafiandi conveyed the importance of blended financing scheme for any urban transportation programs or initiatives, “as people already know, through blended financing scheme we can combine the government funds with other sources like commercial financial institutions or donor countries. This could also be applied to any urban transport projects as the scheme can assist the stakeholders especially government to finance both the Capital Expenditure, Operational Expenditure and Lifecycle Cost.”

Reported by Nadya Yolanda A

Ary Hafiandi. (2019). Urban Transportation in Jakarta: Balancing Supply and Demand. SMI Institute, PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (Persero). Diakses , dari