Arientha Primanita – The millions of people who ride the city's troubled busway system are not a happy bunch, the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation has found in a recent survey.
The foundation, also known as the YLKI, said on Thursday that the poll showed that passengers were most upset by the long waiting times between bus arrivals, never-ending queues, overcrowding, late buses, defective air-conditioning, clueless staff and, of course, being groped.
YLKI chairman Tulus Abadi said that at least 41.5 percent of passengers on the TransJakarta service disliked waiting for buses that were usually late, 26.2 percent believed that the buses and shelters were overcrowded, while 6.48 percent complained about the lack of air-conditioning.
"Other complaints included of people feeling lost and confused, and the clueless busway staff who never helped," he said, adding that only 1.57 percent of people complained of being groped while traveling on the busway and just 1.06 percent had been involved in accidents or had fallen off the transit vehicles. Another issue, he said, was either the busway staff or passengers smoking inside the buses.
Tulus said the TransJakarta Management Unit should prioritize improving the lead time between buses, because the survey showed that most problems occurred during the long waits at the busway shelters.
He said the survey also revealed that passengers would not wait more than 30 minutes for a bus before leaving the busway shelter to find alternative transport.
"At least 29.12 percent of respondents say that they would not use TransJakarta again if the trip from the original shelter to their destination exceeded 30 minutes," he said. "This means that the busway could be abandoned by its customers, which would just lead to more people and vehicles adding to the city's traffic jams."
The survey was conducted between March 14-21 and involved 3,000 passengers from all eight busway corridors.
According to TransJakarta records, more than 42 million passengers have used the busway this year through June, and ridership looks set to break last year's record of 82 million passengers.
Udar Pristono, head of the Jakarta Transportation Office, said that his office, together with the TransJakarta Management Unit, would focus on keeping the restricted busway lanes clear of other vehicles, beginning with three corridors – Pulogadung-Dukuh Atas, Kampung Melayu-Ancol and Ragunan-Dukuh Atas.
Separately, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar told the Jakarta Globe that uniformed police officers would soon be deployed at shelters and on buses to curb recent incidents of sexual harassment and assaults.
"We will focus on Corridors I, II and III because they are the most crowded," he said. "Ideally, every bus shelter will be guarded by two officers and every bus by one officer."