UNAIR NEWS – April 24 is celebrated as National Transportation Day. Almost all Indonesian people rely on public transportation to travel.
In this regard, Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) Faculty of Humanities lecturer Dr. Purnawan Basundoro S.S., M. Hum., proposed an idea of transportation management in Indonesia.
Purnawan has just published a book entitled Transportation Archeology: The Economic and Regional Perspective of 1830-1940s Banyumas Residency.
According to Purnawan, the commemoration of National Transportation Day can be a reflection to overall arrangement of current transportation system. Indonesia has not organized the transportation system long due to several important considerations.
“The transportation system development in Indonesia is quite slow,” he said. “For example, the development of roads in Indonesia is quite slow,” he added.
According to Purnawan, there are several factors that have driven the slow pace of the transportation system in Indonesia. One of them is the liberalization of private vehicles that is getting massive nowadays. The ease in buying private vehicles resulted in the explosion of private vehicles in the streets. If there is no attention from the government, Indonesia in the future will experience severe traffic congestion.
“Two-wheeled vehicles are one of the means of transportation that is easy for every person to possess right now,” he said. “Ten years later if there is no anticipation from the government, there will be chaos in Indonesian transportation system,” he added.
Public transportation is now being abandoned by the community due to the easiness in buying private vehicles. The government in this case should be able to issue a new policy regarding the transportation system, especially regarding ownership of vehicles.
Purnawan also revealed that Indonesia, which already has Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) in Jakarta, can be considered a progress. However, on the other hand there must be other policies such as reducing private vehicles in the streets.
Infrastructure development, such as toll roads, which are currently being built, can reduce congestion. However, it has not had a good impact because the toll road tariff is still expensive.
Purnawan also revealed that there must be a policy encourages public using mass transportation. Encouragement to the public using public transportation must be followed with number of available public transports.
“The government must be strict in managing public transportation, especially the issue of fuel subsidies,” he said. “If possible, give more subsidies to public transportation and make fuel expensive for private transportation in order to create a society which comfortable to use public transportation,” he concluded. (*)
Author: Aditya Novrian
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
