Understanding the Impact of Online Transportation Service (OTS) on the Commuters’ Perception of Accessibility

Jakarta is one of the world’s most congested cities. In response to this issue, Online Transportation Service (OTS) emerged in Jakarta as an alternative transportation service to travel in the city. OTS, as known as ridesharing, is a platform where an individual can ride a car and motorcycle taxi through a mobile application. Brands such as Uber, Grab, Lyft, and Go-Jek are amongst the platform. The number of OTS users in Jakarta has grown rapidly since its arrival in 2014. However, the legalization of OTS is hampered by the different perceptions between the government and OTS companies about the impact of OTS on the accessibility. It is still unclear whether the impact of OTS on the accessibility is positive or negative. Therefore, this study will answer it from the public perception. Accessibility is a concept regarding the extent to which transportation system and land use can ease the people to reach their destinations. Accessibility can be assessed from transportation, temporal, and individual components. Transportation component is related to the level of service that can be provided by a transportation service. Temporal component is concerning about the degree to which a transportation service can make it more flexible for an individual to perform activities at a limited time. Individual component aims to investigate how the transportation service contributes to fulfil the needs, expand the opportunities, and improve the abilities to travel. This study aims to explain the extent to which the use of OTS affects the commuters’ perception of accessibility in Jakarta. The commuters are chosen as the target group of the research because most of journeys are done for work purposes. Instead of examining all components of accessibility, this study will examine the transport, temporal, and individual components of accessibility. This is due to OTS being new in Jakarta and its impact on land use is not yet significant. To achieve this, a survey of 155 respondents was conducted. Moreover, in-depth interviews with OTS companies and users were also performed to have a deeper understanding behind the survey. The finding in transport component suggests that OTS provides a fairly good level of service (mean=3.73 out of 5). In temporal component, it is indicated that OTS contributes to increase the flexibility to perform activities (mean=3.54 out of 5). Moreover, the result in individual component reveals that OTS only partially fulfils the need to commute (mean=3.35 out of 5). This is due to its inability to replace public transport, which can be beneficial for the city as OTS may complement the use of public transport. On top of that, commuters perceive that OTS has a positive impact on the level of accessibility (mean=3.67 out of 5). It is also revealed in this study that the extent to which the commuters perceive the impact of OTS on the accessibility is dependent on their personal characteristics and frequency of OTS use. The frequent OTS users perceive a better accessibility than nonfrequent OTS users, 10% higher in fact. Moreover, transport component is the most significant factor affecting the perception of accessibility. Therefore, if the government is aiming to make Jakarta more accessible, OTS companies should be encouraged to provide a better level of service. In addition, the disputes in the legalization of OTS should reach the common ground; one of the ways is by creating a mutual collaboration between OTS companies, public transport operators, and IPT companies to harmonize the city’s transportation system.