Covid-19 Recovery: Transition Opportunities Towards Jakarta’s Sustainable Urban Mobility?
The Covid-19 pandemic has recently forced half of humanity to experience an unprecedentedly expansive lockdown. Looking back, the Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on the mobility of urban communities in Jakarta. After the official, large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) status it can be ascertained that public transportation ridership has declined as people’s mobility has been limited. During March and April 2020, when the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) was implemented, the Central Statistics Agency’s study showed that the urban mobility in the workplace area decreased by 73% while the mobility in the residence area increased by 34%.
Covid-19 Implications to Public Transport Ridership
At the beginning of June 2020 when the ‘New Normal’ era began, urban mobility gradually recovered, except for the use of public transportation. Based on Moovit (2020), the public transportation ridership in Jakarta has experienced the highest decline of up to 91,9% compared to the pre-pandemic period in January 2020. Meanwhile, data from Apple mobility trends (28 July 2020) shows an increase in the use of private cars by 2%. This phenomenon occurred because the odd-even road rationing policy was not implemented until the end of July. Besides, public transportation capacity is limited to 50% to adapt to the need for physical distancing.
To maintain the public transportation service operations, public transport operators in Jakarta such as BRT Transjakarta, MRT Jakarta, and Commuter Line Jabodetabek (KRL) adapt by applying steps to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in public transportation modes and establishing health protocols in mode operation. These health protocols include regular disinfecting, limiting vehicle maximum capacity by 50%, requiring staff and passengers to wear masks, maintaining physical distancing at stations/stops and vehicles, providing touchless/contactless payment methods, and checking the temperature of passengers before entering the station or vehicle (Transjakarta, 2020; MRT Jakarta, 2020; KAI Commuter Jabodetabek, 2020). However, even though transportation operators in Jakarta have implemented health protocols, public sentiment towards public transportation remains low. From March to July 2020, the average number of public transportation ridership remains decreased by around 70% — 90% compared to the pre-pandemic era (Moovit, 2020).
Changes in Urban Mobility Behavior
Covid-19 pandemic and the implementation of physical distancing has had an impact on changes in people’s mobility behavior. The very high potential for Covid-19 transmission in crowded public transportation makes people reluctant to take risks and shift to alternative modes of transportation, such as private cars, cycling and walking (Koehl, 2020). Jakarta residents responded to the pandemic and ‘New Normal’ era by adapting to the use of alternative modes. For some groups, sustainable modes of transportation, such as using bicycles to travel to work (also popular as bike-to-work) have become popular. Based on the results of the ITDP Indonesia survey (2020), the number of cyclists in Jakarta has increased by 500% compared to October 2019. The number of cyclists along Sudirman Street even increased by 1,000 percent between 6:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. on a weekday compared to the data recorded last year on October 23 and November 6 (ITDP, 2020).
Covid-19 Adaptations as Transition Opportunities to Sustainable Transportation
Transformative Urban Mobility Initiatives (2020) proposed a conceptual framework for the transport sector response to Covid-19 based on the ‘Avoid-Shift-Improve’ approach. Using the ‘Avoid-Shift-Improve’ approach, possible measures were suggested to combat the corona crisis in the transport sector and support the objectives of transport transformation and achieve sustainable mobility in the long term (TUMI, 2020). Referring to the ‘Avoid-Shift-Improve’ conceptual framework, Jakarta Provincial Government and local transport operators’ supports for the use of sustainable transportation modes as a response to the Covid-19 crisis can be broadly divided into two types of modes, namely bicycle, and an electric buses.
Bicycle. Since the ‘New Normal’ era began, the government demonstrated its commitment to prioritize all roads for pedestrians and bicycle users as a means of daily mobility for Jakarta residents. Several main roads such as Sudirman Street, Thamrin Street, and Medan Merdeka Barat Street provides pop-up bicycle lanes every morning and evening, known as bicycle toll roads. To facilitate the public in cycling, the government then expanded the temporary bicycle lanes from 1.25 meters to 2.5 meters by setting up traffic cones. Jakarta Provincial Government also emphasizes the need to provide bicycle parking at offices, shopping centers, bus stops, terminals, stations, and ports/docks. Since July 3rd, the government has also provided bike-sharing named “Gowes” for cycling at nine locations in the city center, which expectantly can be used as the first or last mile mode of transportation. Bicycle use had already seen an increase before restrictions were eased, with some urbanites turning to cycle to cope with mental health issues arising from being forced to stay at home for weeks on end. The government initially planned to expand the bike lane network to 63 km this year out of the planned 500 km throughout the city. However, this year’s program is likely to be scrapped, as Jakarta has altered the city budget in response to Covid-19.
Electric Bus. TransJakarta has two electric buses and is partnering with the BYD brand holders to conduct a trial run of the environment-friendly vehicles on the streets of the capital. The trial run of Transjakarta electric buses is a form of transition towards sustainable mobility in Jakarta. During the trial period, the performance of electric buses will be jointly evaluated and verified by Bakrie Autoparts, TransJakarta, Independent Consultants, and the Jakarta Transportation Agency. The two electric buses, operated on a trial basis, have met the eligibility standards as stipulated in the Indonesian Transportation Ministry’s regulations. Starting July 5th, the electric bus fleet will operate on the City Hall — Blok M route for three months. Transjakarta electric bus can cover a distance of 250 kilometers per charge, produces zero-emission, and has a 100% recyclable battery (Transjakarta, 2020).
Opportunities for the transition towards implementing sustainable transportation depends on public awareness along with integrated government policy interventions. Together with the government, the campaign for sustainable transportation needs to be continuously voiced by the community. Not only communities with certain segments such as bicycles but also by public transportation users so that the aspirations of the two can complement one another. The government then needs to encourage an integrated policy framework between public transportation and active environmentally friendly modes such as bicycles, one of which is the support of technology. For adaptation to sustainable transportation to become permanent in the post-pandemic era, in the future, the MaaS (Mobility as a Service) concept needs to be promoted by integrating public transportation with a bike-sharing system. An opportunity for the program that can be exploited is the socialization of the use of a digital platform-based bike-sharing system as the first & last mile mode of transportation.
References
Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP) 2020. “During Coronavirus, Jakarta’s Cycling Grows as does Police Backlash”. Accessed at https://www.itdp.org/2020/07/10/during-coronavirus-cycling-grows-as-does-policebacklash/
Moovit. 2020. “Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Public Transit usage”. Accessed at https://moovitapp. com/insights/en/Moovit_Insights_Public_Transit_Index-countries
MRT Jakarta. 2020. “Protokol Bangkit”. Accessed at https://www.jakartamrt.co.id/protokolbangkit/
PT. Kereta Commuter Indonesia. 2020. “PT. KCI Siapkan Kebijakan Menghadapi Kenormalan Baru”.Accessed at http://www.krl.co.id/pt-kcisiapkan-kebijakan-menghadapi-new-normal/
TransJakarta. 2020a. “Transjakarta Berlakukan Pola Operasional Baru Selama PSBB”. Accessed at https://www.transjakarta.co.id/transjakarta-berlakukanpola-operasional-baru-selama-psbb/
TransJakarta. 2020b. “Transjakarta Mulai Uji Coba Bus Listrik EV1 Rute Blok M — Balai Kota Dengan Mengangkut Pelanggan”. Accessed at https://www. transjakarta.co.id/transjakarta-mulai-uji-coba-bus-listrik-ev1-ruteblok-m-balai-kota-dengan-mengangkut-pelanggan/
TUMI. 2020. The COVID-19 Outbreak and Implications to Sustainable Urban Mobility — Some Observations. Accessed at https://www.transformative-mobility.org/news/the-covid-19-outbreak-and-implications-to-public-transport-some-observations
