Promoting a Bus Rapid Transit system in Indonesian Cities (INDOBUS)

Context

Urban mobility has emerged as one of the key challenges in the development of Indonesian cities. The exponential growth of motorisation has increased the severity and duration of traffic congestion across metropolitan and major cities.

To mitigate this trend, urban mass public transport systems must become the backbone of urban transport and a pillar of the long-term solution. One of these is the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, which offers higher passenger capacity, higher operating speed due to dedicated lanes and priority signals and positive impacts to urban environment through the shift from private to mass urban transit. The Government of Indonesia (GoI) has allocated budget for BRT infrastructure development and provided subsidies for its operation in major metropolitan cities. The six selected cities for this include the metropolitan areas that contribute to 41 per cent of national GDP.

Objective

The Government of Indonesia has successfully developed a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system that adheres to international standards in six pilot cities, namely Pekanbaru, Batam, Bandung, Semarang, Makassar, and Surabaya.

Approach

The project supports selected Indonesian cities in developing BRT as the backbone of urban mass public transport and as a basis for integrated urban transport systems by:

• Planning and development of BRT corridors with dedicated lanes in selected pilot cities.
• Strengthening public transport management in Indonesian pilot cities to comply with internationally recommended planning and service standards.
• Incorporating BRT corridors as the backbone of urban mass public transport system into the national and sub-national urban transport policies.

The project is a technical assistance component under the SUTRI NAMA programme co-financed by the Government of Switzerland via SECO (Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs).

Last update: July 2023