We cannot continue like this: Jokowi on

Jakarta’s traffic
The Jakarta Post

Jakarta / Wed, January 9, 2019 / 07:43 am

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is looking to get to grips with the appalling Jakarta traffic,
saying that “we have to be brave” to stop the Rp 65 trillion (US$4.6 billion) annual losses
caused by perennial traffic jams.

“We really need to push people to ride public transit modes that we have prepared so we can
significantly reduce the amount of cars on the streets,” he said at the Presidential Palace on
Tuesday.

The President said bad traffic jams and drivers being stuck in “total congestion” would get
worse every day if the government did not iron out the problem. He quoted data from
National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) that said traffic congestion in Greater
Jakarta costs Rp 65 trillion every year.

He said he believed the many modes of public transit in Greater Jakarta—MRT, light rail
transit (LRT), Transjakarta buses, the airport train and commuter trains—had helped reduce
traffic congestion.

“But in the future I expect we can manage all these modes better,” he said. He cited as an
example the road management, with many different institutions handling different sections.
“Sometimes they don’t manage them well, they are not integrated enough and what happens
is that they wait for each other to move first when it comes to maintenance,” he went on.

Jokowi also wanted to see more development of public transit facilities and wanted them to
be better integrated. “We can make things with this Rp 65 trillion, instead of letting it puff
into smoke polluting the city.”

The Jakarta administration does not have an overarching plan for its many public transit
modes. The managements of the MRT, LRT, Transjakarta and commuter trains each have
their own plans that sometimes collide. One example is an LRT route on Jl. HR Rasuna Said
in South Jakarta that took over existing Transjakarta bus lanes.

Jokowi also wanted to speed up transit-oriented development (TOD) management, which he

said had been “stagnant’ for years also because of too many institutions handling it. “We
have the Jakarta administration, the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry, other ministries and
the West Java and Banten administrations,” he said.

The President said Indonesia needed to take into account spatial planning and urban
transportation to speed up TOD, which will increase people’s access to public transit.
Jakarta's MRT to be completed in
February
The Jakarta Post

Jakarta / Thu, December 27, 2018 / 06:08 pm

The construction of the country’s first ever MRT is in its final stage as PT MRT Jakarta is
putting the final touches on the transportation system, which is expected to be completed in
February before officially opening in March.

“Construction progress has reached 98.01 percent,” president director of MRT Jakarta, the
operator of MRT, William P Sabandar said on Thursday as reported by kompas.com.

The company is currently focusing on completing the construction of the interior and
entrance gates at some stations such as Dukuh Atas, Senayan and Istora.

“You can see the ongoing constructions are for the stations along Jl. Sudirman to Jl. MH
Thamrin, we are still constructing several entrance points,” he added.

William added that the company aimed at completing construction by February.

Kompas.com reported there have been facilities established such as tap gates, elevators,
information rooms, ticket counters and tenant spaces at the Hotel Indonesia MRT station. All
are still covered and lined with yellow markings.

The government has announced that the first phase of the service, spanning 15.7 kilometers
from Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta, will
officially begin operating in March.