Fajar Nugrahaini, Head of Road Based Transport, Jakarta Transport Authority, Indonesia

How do you use technology to improve citizens' lives? Tell us about your role or organisation.

My role is to deliver better public transport services in Jakarta so that more people use it and finally the city can have better mobility. In order to make the mobility easier in the (soon-to-be gridlocked) city, we collaborate with several apps such as Trafi, Waze and Google maps.

The apps are helping us to provide data for policy making and evaluation. For example, in 2016, Jakarta was planning to implement a new regulation regarding road restriction - the odd and even plate restriction policy.

We started it with trial phase and evaluated it, gathering data on the impact of the new regulation on average speed, travel time and the number of public transport users in the corridor. We collected the data from the Waze server as we are co-working with them for the data exchange.

From the data, we know that the policy has shown average speed increases for vehicles by 20%. The policy helped Transjakarta buses cruise through the corridors faster, cutting time from 18 minutes to 14.6 minutes between stations. Especially for Transjakarta's corridor I (serving Blok M to Kota) and corridor IX (Pinang Ranti to Pluit) the headway of bus arrivals also became faster, and we found that more people took Transjakarta buses.

There was a 32.6% increase in corridor I, 27.2% increase in corridor VI (Ragunan-Dukuh Atas) and 30.6% increase in corridor IV (Pinang Ranti-Pluit). Therefore, after a month of trial the policy finally implemented.

Besides that, we also use Waze data to identified trouble spots in the city and prioritise sending traffic warden to those spots. By this method, we can work efficiently and send these limited people to the right place and in the right time.

What has been the most exciting thing that you worked on in 2017?

It is the public transport reform: surveying the demand, the needs, the structure of public transport in Jakarta in order to make Jakarta’s Public Transport Master Plan.

What tool or technique particularly interests you for 2018?

Trafi and other apps to help citizens get information of routes and plan their journey using public transportation. However, we are eager to develop the origin and destination data to know the travel pattern of the people in Jakarta, and review the public transport route using it, so the modelling tools such as Vissim help us as well.

If you were to share one piece of advice that you learned in 2017, what would it be?

Do not think it is impossible. Work together and everything will be easier!

What was the greatest challenge that you overcame in 2017?

The first stage of Public Transport Integration System. It is a long haul process but it has already started. I couldn’t imagine how to overcome this challenge before, because so many people to ensure, so many ideas to share and to compile, and so many conflicting interest as well in one team. But the people now have one vision to deliver a reliable public transport for the citizens, and the program is actually soft launched by the Governor on 14 December.

What book did you read in 2017 that most interested or inspired you?

Restructuring Public Transport Through Bus Rapid Transit – An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective, published by Policy Press 2016

Who inspired you in 2017, and why?

I have more than one candidate in mind such as Emmanuel Macron and Leonardo diCaprio, but I have to say it is my 6-month-old daughter, Anahita Alyssa Yusuf. She teaches me to be patient; she teaches me to easily forgive the mistakes; she teaches me to work hard and enjoy the process of growth. She teaches me to always show your smile in order to comfort people around you, and the most important is that she teaches me to be a mom - hopefully a good one!