My Essay on Public Transportation

Name: Alta Windiana

Class: Mass Communication 10-5B

NIM: 2006100141

Date: 1 July 2008

Why Mass Transportations Are Needed More

Traffic jam has become a common problem for people who live in Jakarta. In fact, this issue costs us a large sum of money. According to the website handy.hagemman.com, the total financial loss caused by traffic jam in Jakarta for the year 2007 reached 41 billion Rupiah (Hagemman). The government should handle this problem immediately, because there are several reasons why they should spend more money on developing public or mass transportations instead of concentrating on expanding roads and highways in Jakarta.

The main reason is by upgrading the quality and increasing quantity of public transport available, it will gradually cause people to adjust their habit by using the public transportation instead of driving their own vehicle. In year 2003, the numbers of vehicle which were operated in Jakarta’s roads have reached 6.506.244 units (Nismara). It is believed that in 2008, the number has increased significantly. If government does not try to control the population of private transportation soon, Metro TV predicted that in the year 2015, people will not be able to drive or ride their personal car or motorcycle anymore due to the overcrowded roads in Jakarta (Hagemman). The government’s policy in expanding roads and highways will indirectly even promote the use of private transportations.

If people start to use public transportation, the air and noise pollution level will be decreased. The pollution level in Jakarta has reached to a danger and an unhealthy level. The heavy traffic in Jakarta has caused many health problems and the total cost spent for this issue is about 2.8 billion Rupiah a year. (Study on Integrated Transportation Master Plan for Jabodetabek (SITRAMP 2004)

In addition to these reasons, the event of increasing fuel price in Indonesia can also be a right time for the government to promote the use of public transportation. As a result of the rising fuel price recently, many people left their private transportation behind and jump on public transportations of their choice. According to the official website of Jakarta Government, the number of people who use the busway mass transportation has increased from 210.000 to 229.173 people a day. Until this year, people who shifted from private to mass transportation have reached 21 percent of 5.7 million people in Jakarta who use personal transportation (Agustiar). Darmanigtyas, a transportation expert from Transportation Studies Institue said to Suara Pembaruan Daily online, “Dengan harga BBM saat ini, potensi warga untuk beralih ke angkutan umum massal, seperti busway, akan bertambah. Tetapi sayang kalau sarana seperti itu jumlahnya masih terbatas (With the present fuel price, more citizens will move to mass transportations, such as busway. It will be unfortunate if these transportations are still very limited in number)”. (Darmaningtyas)

Beside the government’s effort to improve and promote the public transportation, the community should also realize the positive effects of using them. The Jakarta Province government has several plans and programs to develop public transportations, such as busway, Light Rail Transit (LRT), Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), and water transportation (Waterway). Hopefully, these developments can solve traffic problems in Jakarta.