Transport in Indonesia - Roads and Highways

Roads and Highways

A wide variety of vehicles are used for transportation on Indonesia's roads. Bus services are available in most areas connected to the road network. Between major cities, especially on Sumatra, Java, and Bali, services are frequent and direct; many services are available with no stops until the final destination. In more remote areas, and between smaller towns, most services are provided with minibuses or minivans (angkut). Buses and vans are also the primary form of transportation within cities. Often, these are operated as share taxis, running semi-fixed routes.

Many cities and towns have some form of transportation for hire available as well such as taxis. There are usually also bus services of various kinds such as the Kopaja buses and the more sophisticated Transjakarta bus rapid transit system in Jakarta. Many cities also have motorized autorickshaws (bajaj) of various kinds. Cycle rickshaws, called becak in Indonesia, are common in many cities and provide inexpensive transport. They have been blamed for causing traffic congestion and banned from most parts of central Jakarta. Horse-drawn carts are found in some cities and towns.

Due to the increasing purchasing power of Indonesians, private cars are becoming more common especially in major cities. However the growth of the number of cars increasingly outpaces the construction of new roads, resulting in frequently crippling traffic jams in large parts in major cities especially in Jakarta, which often also happen on highways.

The AH2 highway is one of Indonesia's main highways. The other one is AH25 in Sumatra.

Indonesia has about 213,649 km of paved highways and about 154,711 km of unpaved highways (As of 2002 estimate).

Indonesia has some highways, some of them are National Routes (25, currently only in Java), and some of them are freeways. All the freeways are tolled (toll road). The most expensive is the Cipularang Toll road that connects Jakarta and Bandung.

For land transportation (including trains), Indonesia will adopt an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) gradually since 2012. ITS Indonesia was formed in April 26, 2011.