Jakarta e-Mobility Event, Governor Commits to Electrify Public Transport Fleets

Jakarta Governor, Anies Baswedan officially opened the Jakarta E-Mobility Event, a virtual discussion forum organized by the Jakarta administration to demonstrate current commitments and efforts in electrifying public transport fleets, one of which is Transjakarta.

Jakarta has initiated sustainable mobility through an integrated transportation system

The event also has an important role, especially in Jakarta as the host of the implementation of Urban 20 (U20) which is part of the G20 Presidency, which aims to respond to the climate crisis by fighting for and accelerating the transition to a carbon-free, inclusive, and resilient society.

He started his speech by affirming the commitment that Jakarta is currently working on to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30% by 2030 and achieve zero emissions by 2050.

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Its commitment was also stated in the Governor's Regulation number 90/2021 on the Jakarta Low Carbon Development Plan. One of the climate actions is to initiate sustainable mobility through an integrated transportation system.

"We aim to transform Jakarta from a traffic-dominated, congested, and polluted city to a world leader in sustainable, safe, comfortable, and inclusive public transportation. To realize this vision, Jakarta has initiated sustainable mobility through an integrated transportation system by shifting the paradigm from Car-Oriented Development to Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)," he explained, as quoted by Jakarta PPID's press release, Tuesday (3/1).

In recent years, Jakarta has also made major improvements to the public transportation system, expanded Transjakarta routes, and integrated Microtrans to achieve 82% service coverage and increased PSO (public service obligation) for public transportation by 180% in 2020 compared to 2017, which aims to improve the quality of public transportation that is fair to every individual in Jakarta.

Then infrastructure for pedestrians and bicycles is also continuously being improved, such as revitalizing 364-kilometer-long sidewalk across Jakarta and building 12-kilometer-long protected bicycle lanes, as well as 63 bike-sharing places around transit areas on the city's busiest roads.

"Efforts to expand the scope of public transport and improve the quality of its supporting services have paid off. In just two years, the annual number of passengers on public transport in Jakarta had doubled in 2019. As for the construction of a massive cycling network and other breakthrough innovations in the sustainable transportation sector, Jakarta was awarded as the winner of the 2021 Sustainable Transport Award (STA)," he added.

Then for the implications for the electrification of the Transjakarta fleet in the future to accelerate the vision of realizing clean mobility in Jakarta,  the administration also committed to diverting the Transjakarta fleet to electric buses.

As the initial stage, as many as 100 electric buses on the existing Transjakarta route would be implemented for the pilot program. The administration was previously trying to conduct a series of pre-tests for several electric bus models which is an important step for evaluating fleet performance before deploying them on a large scale.

In the future, TransJakarta would replace half of its bus fleet into an electric fleet, gradually before 2025.

"It is one of our concrete actions to support the Government of Indonesia's Battery Electric Vehicle Acceleration Program for Road Transportation. By so, it is expected to achieve improved air quality and better health benefits,” he explained.

"It will also allow citizens to experience the benefits of using the new technology. Thus, the momentum of renewing the Transjakarta fleet into electric vehicles will also increase the level of public transportation services," he furthered.

To realize it, the administration would also open up collaboration spaces in the future thus the entire community could be involved in this public transportation transformation.

"We recognize that the road to the implementation of electric public transport has many challenges that must be overcome. That's why we open collaborative spaces with various elements, such as the Central Government, international partners, and collaborators. Jakarta welcomes this potential collaboration," he closed.