Public Transportation in Jakarta

Jakarta as the capital city of Indonesia, is always bustling with life. It is filled with different public transportation such as angkot (mini bus), transJakarta (bus), and various trains (krl, mrt, and lrt). The city that is full of public transportation makes it easier for mobility. Public transportation often takes twice the time than it would be needed in comparison with using a private vehicle. However, public transportation is much more likeable when there is traffic jam even though the vehicle would be cramped with people. There are a lot of pluses and even some negative sides when discussing about public transportation. But overall, public transportation are great for the environment and they truly help people’s mobility.

I had visited Bali during my teen years and when I was 17 year old. The only public transportation I know that was there was transBali or a bus. It was probably around 2013, my family and I were visiting a tourist destination at night. When we wanted to return to our hotel, the place was already deserted. We waited for the transBali to come, but it took a really long time. We would have called a cab, but there was not one in sight. We got back safely to the hotel, because the transBali eventually came and it was the last bus of the night. Five years later when I returned to Bali, I used online transportation as my mode of mobility because I did not understand the public transportation there.

The difference between cities feels so real to me just based of the public transportation that is available in that city. I am grateful for the different variety of public transportation choices in Jakarta and an easy way to know the arrival time of the transportation by using apps provided by the public transportation management. I hope that the rest of Indonesia becomes more mobile in their own respective city. Indonesia’s government has already built infrastructures that connect Indonesia as a whole, as we are a country that consists of different islands.