While former businessman Sandiaga Uno has only been vice governor for three days, he has been coming up with “unconventional”, out-of-the-box solutions to tackle Jakarta’s most serious problems for quite a while now, like when he suggested that Jakarta’s preman (thug) problem could be solved by hiring them as debt collectors or when he proposed banning cars worth IDR3 billion (US$ 221,828) or more as a solution to the capital’s terrible traffic.
Some people criticized those ideas for being, let’s say, somewhat unrealistic. But now that Sandiaga is officially the capital’s second-in-command, he is using his new authority to suggest a straightforward plan to help vastly improve the efficiency of the city’s Transjakarta busway system, which still suffers from lengthy delays due to the terrible traffic jams that plague most of Jakarta.
Sandiaga’s unique insight came after he and Governor Anies Baswedan took the Transjakarta to and from City Hall on their first official day of work yesterday but after their bus got stuck in traffic he was forced to proceed on motorcycle.
According to the new vice governor, one of the reasons that TransJakarta buses are getting stuck is because their routes pass through points where construction on numerous major traffic infrastructure projects are taking place.
So, Sandiaga’s solution is?
“Maybe today, I will give special instructions to the directors of Transjakarta to find routes that are not too macet (jammed),” the vice governor said at City Hall today as quoted by Metro TV.
If you’re thinking, “Ah, of course, just take roads that are less macet! Why didn’t anybody think of that before!” then you share the same impulse for sarcastic commentary as many netizens, who immediately and hilariously panned Sandiaga’s idea on social media.
https://twitter.com/rudy_sugiyono/status/920851869903101952
“Look at the positives. In my opinion, this is a brilliant idea. The Jakarta Government must be planning to make TransJakartas that can fly”
Berarti tj beroperasi jam 1 pagi sampai jam 4 pagi
— Aditya Riky (@adity4riky) October 19, 2017
“Meaning the Transjakarta will operate from 1 am to 4 pm”
Cerdas! Semua driver TJ diwajibkan menggunakan aplikasi waze.
— Rivo Pamudji~Cipong (@RivoPamudji) October 19, 2017
“Brilliant! All Transjakarta drivers will be required to use Waze.”
https://twitter.com/ididthe/status/920892815118295040
“There’s a faster way, Pak…”
https://twitter.com/montytiwa/status/920872474065059840
“Brilliant, Sandi! The Transjakarta can take advantage of the TransPapua road newly built by President Jokowi. Guaranteed free of jams.”
@sandiuno pic.twitter.com/RqLcuECAC1
— 🃏 (@gohzah) October 19, 2017
When asked for his reaction to Sandi’s “look for routes with less traffic” directive, the president director of PT TransJakarta, Budi Kaliwono, diplomatically said they would look into.
“We continue to think of strategies and concrete steps to reduce the disruption of travel time due to development projects in Jakarta,” Budi said in a statement on Thursday as picked up by Detik.
Some might argue that a more realistic solution to maintaining the efficiency of the busway system is to make it more difficult, and issues much heavier penalties for, private vehicles that enter the specialized busway lanes to beat traffic (which remains a big problem in some areas).
Will Sandiaga order a crackdown on people using busway lanes irresponsibly as well?
https://www.facebook.com/CoconutsJakarta/posts/1945492592404687
Hmm, maybe not…
Reader Interactions