Private sector sought for Trans Sarbagita investment

By Agnes Winarti 

Published in Bali Daily/The Jakarta Post Wednesday, May 15 2013

Since its launch in 2011, Bali’s first integrated public transportation system, Trans Sarbagita, has yet to attract private investors, a necessary factor to expand the network across the whole Sarbagita area, an acronym that stands for Denpasar city, Badung, Gianyar and Tabanan regencies.

Until now, the two main Trans Sarbagita bus corridors, connecting Batubulan–Nusa Dua and Denpasar–Jimbaran, rely on the operation of 25 buses, all of which were donated by the Transportation Ministry.

While the ministry expects this grant of buses to stimulate each of the respective areas and the province to be proactive in its own expansion, Bali still faces investment hurdles to develop the bus rapid transit system, which is expected to have 17 corridors by 2019.

“It is hard to find private investors willing to invest not just in Badung but also in Bali because it’s difficult for them to measure the breakeven point investing in transportation. If there are any, most of them are large companies already established in Java,” Badung transportation agency’s head of public transport division Made Widiana told Bali Daily.

Aiming to establish a more integrated network through Trans Sarbagita, Badung administration cooperates with a Cikarang, West Java-based minibus operator to run 14 feeder minibuses along two routes, while Denpasar administration also works with local enterprises that operate 48 modified, old minibuses on four routes. Badung allocated Rp 3.7 billion (US$378,000), while Denpasar earmarked Rp 5 billion, annually for the operational costs of these routes.

The provincial administration has similarly purchased third-party transportation services from state-owned public transportation company DAMRI and local firm Restu Mulya for the main Trans Sarbagita corridors. This year, the province has allocated around Rp 9 billion for the operation and maintenance of its two existing corridors.

“The private sector may have been willing to invest as a service operator, but so far no one has been interested in placing multifold investments for bus procurement,” said Bali Transportation Agency head Dewa Putu Punia Asa, who recently publicly urged more investors to join the administration in developing Trans Sarbagita.

Despite the steadily increasing average number of daily passengers, from 1,508 people per day in 2011 to 2,886 in 2012, Punia still argued that the public’s decades-old dependency on motorcycles and private vehicles made it difficult for the public and investors alike to fully embrace public transportation now.

Director of Urban Transport System Development at the Land Transportation Directorate General in the Transportation Ministry, Djoko Saksono, emphasized an equally crucial factor for the successful implementation of public transportation: a proactive effort from the local administrations to convince the private sector to jointly develop the transport system.

“The local administrations in Bali have to invest not just capital but also policies that are in favor of public transportation, while providing protection and comfort for the users. To successfully implement public transportation, supporting facilities must go hand-in-hand. That includes making available adequate sidewalks and banning on-street parking that clearly disrupts the Trans Sarbagita buses when operating along the routes,” Djoko told Bali Daily on Tuesday.

Previously, the president of Indonesia Transportation Society, Danang Parikesit, had also urged the central government to increase the fiscal capacity of local administrations by allocating some of the savings made from the fuel subsidy reduction to support the self-financing of provincial and regional urban transportation development.

“The government must set a clear plan so when it decides to reduce the fossil fuel subsidy, it will simultaneously boost investment in the transportation sector. The government needs to increase the fiscal capacity of local administrations so they can use more of their regional budget to self-finance in developing their urban transport sector,” said Danang.

“It’s impossible for the ministry to continuously subsidize buses for the 400 cities and regencies nationwide to develop their transport sector,” he declared.

Bicycle lanes dying out due to lack of leadership

By Agnes Winarti 

Published in Bali Daily/The Jakarta Post Saturday, May 04 2013

Denpasar may have initiated bicycle lanes in some parts of the city since 2009, however, the eco-friendly mode of transport appears to be dying out, as further development and maintenance has not been carried out since 2010.

Since the Car Free Day launch in Renon in 2009, bicycle lanes throughout Denpasar remain the same length of 16.4 kilometers, with many of the lanes and traffic markers fading away due to the lack of maintenance. The bicycle lanes comprise roughly around 4 percent of the capital’s more than 470 km of streets.

“There has not been any maintenance budget for the bike lanes in the past few years. However, this year, we expect to get some Rp 100-200 million (US$10,250-$20,500) from the revised provincial budget,” Denpasar Transportation Agency’s traffic division head Nyoman Sustiawan told Bali Daily on Friday.

Nyoman said: “The sum will be used for maintenance of the fading lanes and maybe extending the lanes to a length of some 20 km.” More lanes would be made in specific areas that have schools, tourist destinations, markets or shopping outlets.

The upcoming lanes are expected along Jl. Gunung Agung, Jl. Teuku Umar and Jl. Imam Bonjol. Nevertheless, Nyoman said developing bicycle lanes was hard to implement due to the limited space and motorized vehicles commonly parking along public streets. “We are unable to enforce regulations that ban on-street parking, because we receive little backup from the traffic police,” he said.

“Most walkways also end up as parking space anyway,” he said. Among the streets in Denpasar that are equipped with quite generous pedestrian walkways are Jl. Gajah Mada and Jl. Kamboja –regretfully both of which have turned into parking lots.

Bali Transport Agency recorded in 2011 that Bali was home to 2.35 million motorized vehicles –motorcycles and cars, around 1.9 million of which were focused around Denpasar city and Badung regency.

The neighboring regency, Badung, also faces similar traffic headaches, especially in the crowded tourist areas along Jl. Pantai Kuta and Jl. Legian. Reportedly, the Badung Transportation Agency expects to implement zoning rules for vehicle parking in the overcrowded areas.

At the Environmentally Sustainable Transport Forum held in Bali recently, executive director of Jakarta-based Leaded Gasoline Eradication Committee (KPBB) Ahmad Puput Safrudin highlighted the urgency of enhancing urban walkability in many of Indonesia’s cities.

“There is an urgent need to reclaim pedestrianized areas, such as Taman Fatahillah in Jakarta, the Kuta tourism area in Bali, Malioboro street in Yogyakarta, Cihampelas in Bandung and many others. The presence of reliable and accessible public minibuses is crucial to successfully enhance urban walkability,” he said.

Puput cited a success story from a similar tourist destination in Thailand, Pattaya Beach, where the administration managed rid the area of traffic congestion by strictly banning private vehicles from the area.

“Unlike Kuta Beach, where private vehicles rule the streets, tourists visiting the streets of Pattaya can walk or rely on public transport,” he said.

Michael Replogle, the founder and managing director for policy at the Washington DC-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), also stated that even in a city as advanced as New York, changes had been made to accommodate more pedestrian zones and less car traffic, by learning from best practices in Paris, as well as Chinese cities that have their own public bicycle system.

“Some of the biggest streets in New York, like Broadway, have been closed to car traffic. It used to be very congested but now large parts are pedestrian zones with bike paths, and tables and chairs for people to sit out and enjoy the green space and parks in the city. Right through the heart of Times Square, the densest part of Manhattan, is now partially a pedestrian zone.”

“Jakarta, Manado, Denpasar could easily develop public bike systems and allocate more space to bicycles to make it more attractive for people to ride bicycles in the city and to make it safer to cross the street. But this requires political leadership and developing leadership coalitions between businesses, civil society and government. It could be done in a single mayor’s term of office. With leadership, important changes can be made in the right direction,” assured Replogle.