ITB Students Design Mobile Application To Reduce Jakarta's Traffic Woes

JAKARTA, May 24 (Antara) - A team of students from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Tuesday, won a digital innovation competition by designing a mobile application to improve Jakarta's public transportation services and help reduce traffic jams. Students of the Electrical Engineering and Informatics School of ITB -- Atika Rahmawati Yuliantoputri, Erick Chandra, Fachriyan Husaini, Mahardhika Adjie Kurniya, and Rahmadi Rikki S. Pandia -- were awarded the first prize at the Ericsson Smartnovation Indonesia Hackathon 2017 held in Jakarta. Yuliantoputri and the other team members had around 20 hours to design a solution to tackle the transportation problem and were assisted by experts from the Swedish communication giant enterprise Ericsson. "We started by evaluating the problems and opportunities that exist in our transportation system," Yuliantoputri revealed. Thereafter, several indicators were identified as the main problems in public transportation services in Jakarta and Indonesia, in general. The first was the fact that around 15 percent of Indonesian people prefer to use public transportation instead of private vehicles. Once they have chosen to use means of public transportation, such as city bus or mini bus, locally called "angkot," they have to face another inconvenience that is the waiting time. "We all agree that our public transportation system is very unique since public transport in our country takes its own time to wait for other passengers, while people are already in the vehicle," Yuliantoputri said while referring to a practice locally known as "ngetem." A distance, which can be covered in 15 minutes by a motorcycle, might take longer, from 30 minutes until an hour, when a person is using a poor public transportation service, she pointed out. Moreover, the uncertainty in seat availability for passengers, the inconsistent tariff, and safety have become the other concerns. "It is a waste of time," Yuliantoputri noted. Yuliantoputri and her team then devised a mobile app for smartphones that can be used to overcome these challenges. The system works both for the passengers and public transport drivers, similar to those of online, on-demand private ridesharing apps, such as Uber or Grab. The application will provide information on public transport routes, the nearest vehicles based on their GPS location, the tariff, and seat availability to the passengers. On the other hand, the app will help drivers to identify the location of any passenger, who has booked a trip, and thus, they need not wait longer for passengers at unscheduled stops. The students expressed hope that the mobile app would be able to provide a solution to improve public transportation services in the country. Identifying routes and disseminating information among the public and drivers will be some challenges faced in developing and applying the program, and support of the government and public transportation associations are the key factors. The winning team of students received a cash prize of Rp50 million (around US$3,700) and an opportunity to attend an internship program at Ericsson. The closing ceremony of the Ericsson Smartnovation Indonesia Hackathon 2017 was also attended by King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf, who is paying a state visit to Indonesia, accompanied by several officials such as Swedish Minister of Infrastructure Anna Johansson, Indonesia's minister of communication and information, and high-level officials from Ericsson. During the ceremony, Ericsson received a lifetime achievement award from the Government of Indonesia, presented by Minister Rudiantara, for its service to Indonesia.