Let's support BRT

As one of Semarang Citizens, I would like to support the city government’s program to provide a public transportation which is safe, cheap, and comfortable for each citizen that’s widely known as Bus Rapid Trans or BRT.  I do believe that this city government’s big step in providing good public service for each citizen can be a good solution for overcoming the Public Transportation problem in Semarang.


Why do I say that? Let us trace my arguments in the several following reasons.

Firstly, BRT is safe and comfortable for its passengers. Why is it safe? Because, the interior design of this bus is designed to be as safe as possible for the passengers. We can see it from the arrangement of the passenger seats, which is designed along the inner side. Besides, the space for standing passengers is also available in the middle of the bus. With an interior design like this, the passengers can sit down next to each other so that others can easily see their activities. Thus, it is expected to minimize any kinds of criminals on the bus during the trip such as pick pocketing and hold-up. Then, the passengers can also feel comfortable because this kind of public transportation is completed with air conditioner and automatic sprayer which can keep the atmosphere in the bus fresh and fragrant. Therefore, this means of transportation is clearly safe and comfy for all its passengers to go wherever they want.

Next, its fare is quite cheap so all the citizen from the different social backgrounds can use it for their daily activity like transporting them to markets, schools, office, etc and the passengers are affordable to pay such fare. Let’s take an example. If the passengers want to go from Jatingaleh to Simpang Lima square, he or she will pay the fare of it which equals with that for any other destination in all around Semarang. It’s only 2,000 for students and 3,500 for adults. It’s really cheap right?

Thirdly, BRT can be the solution for reducing the number of street vehicles especially during rush hours in the morning and in the afternoon. So it can cut the number of Traffic Jam in Semarang and hopefully the street users will feel more comfortable.   Because if there’s BRT, the street user  will change their habit from the beginning use motorcycle or car slowly will use it although there’s some people who use his/her vehicle but if 50% of Semarang’s society use it so that’s why there will be no traffic jam and indirectly it will make Semarang city’s air fresh, why do I say that? Because when then number of vehicles in Semarang are decrease so the air pollution will decrease too, and the global warming effect in Semarang will decrease.

In addition, BRT can absorb the new job opportunity for its bus crews like the drivers and conductors.  And if there are many bus because the passengers are very enthusiasm to use it, so the city government should provide extra bus and each bus will absorb some crews and it will decrease the number of jobless people in Semarang City.

In the several reason that I mention above, the government should provide a good management in the public transportation services and make sure whether this, is affordable for Semarang’s citizen or not.

Written by Bob Aldi - Accounting students at Padjadjaran University