Abstract for: Saving Lives and Time: Tackling Transportation Induced Air Pollution in Jakarta

Respiratory illness due to air pollution from transportation activities is a major health-related issue in Jakarta. Besides, the city has been experiencing a degradation of the transportation system, due to the growth in travel demand, which cannot be balanced with the available space for motorized vehicle movements. Despite the fact that various governmental departments in Indonesia have proposed and implemented measures to control these issues, the effectiveness of their policies has not been examined properly, and it seems that they only focus on certain aspects of the system. The aim of this study is to provide a systemic perspective of the traffic congestion, air pollution and its health impact issues in Jakarta, through the identification of relevant interrelated feedback loops, the exploration of various policy options, and the assessment of the effectiveness of these policies under deep uncertainty. Simulation results indicate that the population subsystem is the main driver of air pollution and traffic congestion. Taking these results into account, we show that the traditional debated policies are ineffective, as they fail to address this main driver.