EF#12 – Your Means of Transport

As I have changed my blog’s theme for the umpteenth time (well yes, this is the fourth or the fifth times, haha.. The current theme is blue coloured 😀), I just remembered about the BEC’s weekly challenge. So, it’s better to fulfill the challenge right now since I still can’t sleep earlier tonight.

I have a challenge to post an article about the means of transportation.

In order to make a movement from one location to another, people will look for the means of transportation. There are car, motorbike / motorcycle, bicycle, bus, minibus, pedicab, train, ’til ship and airplane. Everyone needs to make a movement since everyone has their own business. Students have to go to schools, parents have to go to offices, household mothers have to go to markets, etc. Because we can’t rely on our feet to go to distant places, then we need the means of transportation.

When I was a kid, I used my parents’ motorcycle to go to everywhere. I didn’t drive because I can’t drive it. I was only the passenger, haha.. Besides motorcycle, I used car, pedicab, and “oplet” (jitney) also as the means of my transportation. “Oplet” is the small-sized passenger car that will deliver the passengers from one location to another. Usually “oplet” has its own pathways which have been determined by the local government.

“Oplet” (via Google)

Since I moved to Jakarta, I walked to campus because the distance wasn’t far from my last residence, and I used “busway” or taxi if I went to public areas. “Busway” or “TransJakarta” was designed to provide the fast public transportation system for the Jakarta’s citizens. As “oplet”, it will run in the pathways which have been determined by the local government. And since I have finished my study, I always use the service of “ojek” to go to my office. If I have to go to public areas, I will use the service of busway or taxi.

“Busway”or “TransJakarta” (via Google)

“Ojek” is a private owned motorcyle taxi that can take you from one location to another, as long as the driver knows your destination. Generally, the fare depends on the distance of your destination. I have my own “ojek” to go to the office who is called as Pak Solihin. He will pick me up at my current residence and at the office, from Monday to Friday. Because I have signed up as his regular customer then my payment is different from others. My payment is cheaper by half of the normal price, but it isn’t cheaper than bus or minibus. 

“Ojek” (via Google)

You might be asking, why I choose to use the public transportation rather than buying a car or motorcycle as my own personal transportation. I do not think that car or motorcycle should be the most important thing right now since I live in Jakarta. We can find many kind of public transportation in this city even though it’s not (yet) as adequate as the public transportation in Singapore or Malaysia. However, we have to admit that not all of the public transportation makes us safe from all forms of crime. Besides, I’m not kind a person who like to spend hours for traffic-jam only. That’s one of the reason I chose “ojek” as the means of my transportation. Believe me, “ojek” can pass through the sea of road congestion, haha..  As I dislike a late person, I always try to be the on-time person.

How about bus or minibus? For your information, I prefer “ojek” to bus or minibus or angkot or metromini or Kopaja. I do not like to jostle with other passengers in the bus. And I’m sorry in the advance if I have to say this, but the chances for the forms of crime in the bus is higher than “ojek”. But if I face the urgent situations, I will take the bus with my friend. 

As the closing, I still keep my dreams and hopes that our government will provide the adequate public transportation for us. If it happens, public transportation could be a greener form of travel. We can’t deny that personal transportation such as car contributes a significant amount of carbondioxide emissions. Furthermore, a good system of the adequate public transportation could reduce the sea of road congestion.

Rgds,

Ws 😉