This post is about what's been bugging me for these last few months, Jakarta's motorcycle phenomenon..
At least that’s what we can see from the shocking data and the fact of how many motorcycles are in a city called Jakarta. Until May 2010, the total amount of motorcycle in Jakarta is more than 8 million units, 8.087.118 to be exact, while the population of the city is 8.523.157 in February 2010 (source). It’s a very shocking statistic for most of us, it sure is.
Actually, not only the statistic for motorcycle is rising, but other vehicles like cars too. But motorcycle has risen very rapidly, for ‘good’ reasons; at least in the owners' mind.
The first reason lies on the condition of public transportation. If you have lived in Jakarta, and used the public transportation to get around, you would easily find the reason behind this phenomenon related to public transportation.
1. The public transportation system, especially buses. Like other nations, in Indonesia, this transportation business is also run by private sector, some are partly owned by the city government. But something is different here. Most of them are being run by individuals, it’s like someone who has enough money bought some buses and operate them to fulfill the public transportation function.. and then other people do the same thing to, for the same bus course. And to put acid on the wound, these bus owners made a system that every of the bus has to reach target of how much money the bus crews should get in a day. You can imagine, every bus in the same course are competing each other! The implementation is awful. Buses are speeding, like racing against other buses. Buses stop at some places so long to wait for passengers. Buses take different route to be ahead of others. And the most annoying thing is, they often hand over the passengers to other bus as if we are lifeless goods, so they can turn around and take more passengers. All they do only to meet the target that has been given to them.
2. The privately owned buses are only meant to get margin between earning and costs. This is actually ironic. Transportation is service business, yet they don’t give any decent service to the passengers. While other sectors run under ‘zero accident’ policy, it seems that public transportation in jakarta runs under ‘zero maintenance’ policy. Can you imagine those buses without proper maintenance? They press the maintenance cost as low as possible to maximize the margin. What we will find is a very inhuman bus, with so many defects, leak roof, broken windows and seats, poor lightning, extremely high pollution, etc. They even added more seats to load more passengers, with the consequence of very narrow clearance for the passenger’s legs. I can’t even sit properly in those seats. All about margin..
Creepy Bus Interior
Inside of 'Metro Mini'
Another reason related to public transportation is about ‘safety’. Well, it’s about safety of passengers’ belonging and their very lives. I can only tell you, there are lots of bad guys in the buses and the bus terminals. Those 3 reasons are enough to describe how awful the condition of public transportation and enough for people in Jakarta to not choose to take bus as their first choice to fulfill their needs of mobility.
The second reason is the ease to buy motorcycle. Only with around 55 us$ as down payment, you can take a motorcyle home. So ‘cheap’, or the seller made it sounds cheap. The actual price of the average unit is actually not that cheap. But those sellers made the installment payment sounds so cheap, like only 55 us$ a month for few years. And people react positively because it’s now somehow affordable for people from lower social classes. Sure, if they can buy motorcycle instead of taking those horrible buses, why not?!
The third reason is traffic is getting worse, it jams everywhere during peak hours. As the people from higher social classes can afford cars, the road is getting full by it. Cars are being bought every day in Jakarta, while new road is almost never constructed. A simple logic would tell that it will surely be saturated someday. And that day is getting closer. Jakarta is predicted to be paralyzed by its own citizen if people keep buying cars but government do nothing to add the facilities. This condition is getting worse every day, stressful traffic jams are everywhere, and even they who usually drive car would think that it is better to ride motorcycle.
Well.. Maybe there are more reasons of why and why.. But those are what I have in mind..
Well.. Maybe there are more reasons of why and why.. But those are what I have in mind..
