Jakarta – Nearly all female busway passengers support the plan by busway operator TransJakarta to allocate buses exclusively for women, a survey revealed Thursday.

The Institute of Transportation Studies (Instran) found in its survey that 90.2 percent of the 853 women interviewed agreed with the plan, while 5.6 percent opposed it. The remaining 36 respondents or 4.2 percent had no opinion on the matter.

"Most of the arguments in favor of the plan cited safety and comfort," Instran researcher Dharmaningtyas told a press conference. Only 68.1 percent of respondents said they would definitely take the special bus while 27.5 percent said they would first see how the plan worked. The other 4.4 percent said they would not take the women-only buses.

The survey was conducted between March 29 and 31 on board buses along the seven existing corridors.

According to Dharmaningtyas, 75.45 percent of the respondents who supported the plan believed the special buses would free them from pickpockets and sexual harassment.

Respondents opposing the plan urged the city-owned busway operator to provide good services equally to both men and women. Most of the respondents interviewed also suggested the administration improve services, the number of buses and headway time.

Acknowledging the limited size of the bus fleet, TransJakarta chairman Dradjad Adhiyaksa said providing women-only buses would not affect busway operations.

"It's just a matter of passenger management... part of our effort to improve services," he told the joint press conference. "The survey results will be reported to Governor Fauzi Bowo, who has the last say on its implementation," he said.

The plan was made following complaints from some female passengers during peak hours, when they were at risk of sexual harassment in packed buses.

In the pilot project plan, Dradjad said, a ratio of 3:1 would be used along Corridor I (Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta), with one women-only bus for every three mixed buses.