Moving the Masses: Bus-Rapid Transit (BRT) Policies in Low Income Asian Cities: Case Studies from Indonesia

216 Pages·2019·3.916 MB·English

by  Suryani Eka Wijaya, Muhammad Imran

Suryani Eka Wijaya
Muhammad Imran
Moving the Masses:
Bus-Rapid Transit (BRT)
Policies in Low Income
Asian Cities
Case Studies from Indonesia
Moving the Masses: Bus-Rapid Transit (BRT)
Policies in Low Income Asian Cities
Suryani Eka Wijaya • Muhammad Imran
Moving the Masses:
Bus-Rapid Transit (BRT)
Policies in Low Income
Asian Cities
Case Studies from Indonesia
Suryani Eka Wijaya Muhammad Imran
BAPPEDA of NTB Province Massey University
Mataram, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia Palmerston North, New Zealand
ISBN 978-981-13-2937-1 ISBN 978-981-13-2938-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2938-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018961386
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors
or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims
in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
To planners, environmentalists and the
general public who aspire for sustainable
and affordable transport systems for their
respective cities.
Foreword
Since the mid-1970s, the fame and popularity of Bus Rapid Transit has steadily
grown. One of the most unusual characteristics of this mode of transport is that the
BRT was developed by a relatively low-income city in a developing country con-
text, turning its city of birth, Curitiba, Brazil, into a mecca for transport planners
and prompting many imitations worldwide.
Indonesian cities have organically developed a range of transport options that
offer a range of service levels and prices. These include motorbike taxis, minibuses
and angkot. The available options would be familiar to transport users across Asia:
from rickshaws in Lahore to dyipnes in Manila.
As this book details, on the face of it, the BRT would have been an obvious solu-
tion to the transport problems of rapidly growing urban regions such as Bandung
and Surabaya. As this book mentions, a remarkable 167 cases of BRT implementa-
tion exist worldwide. They provide a relatively cheap means of implementing a
formal public transport solution in a city where none existed previously.
Yet, the transfer of policy ideas from one context to another is never straightfor-
ward, no matter how laudable the idea. Politically, the case for a BRT has to over-
come an entrenched employed polity whose livelihoods rely on existing informal
modes of public transport. In Lagos, for example, an estimated 15% of the popula-
tion of 21 million people receive their sustenance from minibuses and commercial
motorcycles (Kumar et al. 2012)
As this book details, the angkot, ojek and becak drivers provided a formidable
and highly organised force that resisted the shift in the implementation of formal
public transport in the form of a BRT. In such situations leadership and an aware-
ness of multilevel governance are required to implement change. Far away from the
discussions among international donors in conference rooms and hotel lobbies, this
book provides a ground-up discussion of these issues. It mixes personal reflection
with in-depth interviews with a range of key actors. As such, it provides a timely and
critical corrective to the adulatory reports of BRT and its wholesale adoption. It is a
most welcome contribution to the field.
Many cities in Asia are faced with the challenges that the Indonesian cities of
Surabaya and Bandung face. The recommendations from this work ought to feed
vii
viii Foreword
into understandings of other cities in the region. For Indonesian policy-makers, it
will provide a specific example of the mixed results of the decentralisation that has
taken place since the early 2000s.
The central message I took away from this book is that to move into an existing
crowded market place and meet the Indonesian demand for mobility, the BRT would
have had to have offered a significantly improved experience. Yet, the process for
implementation lacked vision and a plan to deal with the existing livelihoods of
those who were going to be worse off as a result of the BRT, despite the central
government’s support and lavish funding from foreign donors. Who knows what the
results might have been for people’s mobility had that money been spent on (1)
recognising the existing public transport infrastructure and (2) making it more effi-
cient. Such situations suggest an approach that is targeted less on the hard infra-
structure of a BRT and more towards a softer but smart solution that takes the assets
of a city and leverages these.
RMIT University Marco Amati
Melbourne, Australia
Reference
Kumar, A., Zimmerman, S., & Agarwal, O. P. (2012). International experience in bus rapid transit
implementation: Synthesis of lessons learned from Lagos, Johannesburg, Jakarta, Delhi, and
Ahmedabad. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Acknowledgements
The idea of this book came to Muhammad Imran (second author) during research
nearly 10 years ago, when the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank started
promoting Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as a ‘silver bullet’ to solve economic, social,
environmental and transport problems in developing countries. Muhammad Imran’s
research was joined by Suryani Wijaya (first author), who received New Zealand
Development Scholarships to undertake Ph.D. in transport planning at Massey
University, New Zealand. This book is an updated and revised version of Suryani
Wijaya’s thesis, which was shaped and reshaped many times in the last 8 years of
hard work.
There are so many people we both owe thanks to in the journey of this research
project, especially Dr. Jeffrey McNeill, for his feedback on doctoral research, and a
number of professionals, political and community leaders in Surabaya, Bandung
and Jakarta, who gave their precious time for interviews. We acknowledge the feed-
back of anonymous reviewers and the writing help from John Moriarty, which
helped polish this book into its current form. This book was made possible by the
friendly and easygoing attitude of the Springer editorial team of Jayanthie Krishnan
and Ameena Jaafar, who helped us at every stage.
Finally, we would like to thank our families, who were the source of motivation
throughout the preparation of this book. We hope it contributes to growing knowl-
edge on the complexities of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in the developing
countries.
ix
Introduction
The sun shines hazily onto streets already crowded with pedestrians and clogged
with motorcycles and cars. Everywhere becak, Indonesia’s cycle rickshaws, weave
through gaps in the traffic and people hail angkot, the local minibuses with open
windows, for a ride to work. Ojek, motorcycle taxis, are also available to take people
to their destinations. But at the road’s far end, a few people are waiting for the
gleaming clean bus rapid transit (BRT) buses, running to timetable to and from vari-
ous parts of the city. It is claimed BRT, built with technical and financial assistance
from international development agencies, reduces traffic congestion and emissions.
In the following pages, the decision-making and the related contested stories sur-
rounding BRT in many Indonesian cities are explored.
The authors have vast experience of using urban public transport systems in
many low-income Asian (LIA) countries. We know that ordinary people have had to
spend much money, waste much time and risk their lives to travel in poor-quality,
unsafe public transport systems in LIA cities. Like other people, we are very anx-
ious to see the development of good-quality and high-occupancy public transport
systems in LIA cities: cities that face many challenges, among which institutional
challenges are the toughest.
Historically, transport policies in LIA countries have focused mainly on building
high-speed roads and have totally neglected greater use of other transport modes
such as walking, cycling and public transport (Bakker et al. 2014; Dahiya 2012;
Imran 2010; Mateo-Babiano 2016; Wright 2004b). These transport policies encour-
aged the use of cars and motorcycles among the middle-class population and made
it difficult for people with low incomes to travel and to contribute to economic
growth (Dahiya 2012; Jaeger et al. 2015; Wright 2004b). In addition, the compact
nature of LIA cities is particularly unsuited to coping with large numbers of vehi-
cles, and the increasing number of private vehicles means dangerous levels of air
pollution and energy consumption in these cities contribute to climate change
(Bakker et al. 2014). The response to climate change has been an attempt to improve
dysfunctional public transport systems, especially in mega-cities such as Manila,
Jakarta, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, Mumbai, Chennai, Karachi, Lahore, Guangzhou
and Shanghai. However, there has been little concern for improving public transport
xi
xii Introduction
in small- and medium-sized cities, despite these cities facing sharp growth in urban-
isation and playing a growing economic role in urban development while experienc-
ing challenges from poverty and environmental degradation (Buluran et al. 2013;
Dahiya 2012; Dimitriou 2006).
The success story of BRT in Curitiba (Brazil) and Bogotá (Colombia) has led
many international experts to advance the building of BRT systems as a solution to
urban transport problems in LIA cities (Rahman et al. 2012; Wright 2004b). BRT is
now seen as a global means of transforming LIA cities into sustainable cities
through access to environmental funds (ADB 2009).
In this book, we examine how high-level actors deployed the Curitiba and
Bogotá models of BRT in two medium-sized cities in Indonesia – Bandung and
Surabaya –and how those BRT projects were received and resisted by other actors
at the local level. BRT planning is a complex process. We unravel some of that
complexity by closely examining what happened in Bandung and Surabaya, shed-
ding light on the distinctive political and institutional dynamics that made the
implementation of the BRT project in each city more complicated. Simultaneously,
we issue a challenge to international and national institutions to develop BRT poli-
cies and projects in a way that can solve transport problems in LIA cities and con-
tribute positively to issues of climate change and energy consumption. Our study
has found (see Chaps. 3 and 4) gaps between different levels of policy development
and implementation of BRT projects. Wherever it is rolled out, the global policy
that treats BRT as a low-carbon development tool that integrates transport, develop-
ment and climate concerns (Bakker et al. 2014; Zusman and Sutomo 2010) could
collide with local public transport policy and cause policy tensions. To identify
these policy tensions in medium-sized LIA cities in general and in the Indonesian
cities of Bandung and Surabaya – which we are using as case studies – in particular,
we answer a research question: How do we identify the multi-level policy tensions
in public transport planning in medium-sized Indonesian cities.
We use the theory of multi-level governance (MLG) to explain the complexities
of intergovernmental relations and decision-making in the planning and implemen-
tation of BRT projects. MLG helps researchers to examine the relationships among
different levels of actors – people working at various levels in government, interna-
tional development agencies and national and international NGOs – who are
involved in the planning, policies and implementation of BRT. MLG theory also
helps to identify people’s goals, the types of power and the communication patterns
in play in Bandung and Surabaya during the BRT decision-making process.
The theoretical framework of MLG is built on an analysis of three types of power
and one set of patterns. The first type of power is financial-institutional power,
which we examine by looking at the financial interdependence of different levels of
government in the course of planning for and implementing BRT; the second is
socio-political power, which we interrogate by looking at the dynamic interplay of
national and local politics and social realities that either facilitate or obstruct BRT
projects; the third is discursive power, and we consider this by exploring the agen-
das and points of view being advanced through different policies and by different