Optimal Public Transportation Networks: Evidence from the World’s Largest Bus Rapid Transit System in Jakarta

Designing public transport networks involves tradeoffs between extensive geographic coverage, frequent service on each route, and relying on interconnections as opposed to direct service. These choices, in turn, depend on individual preferences for waiting for busses, travel time on the bus, and transfers. We study these tradeoffs by examining the world’s largest bus rapid transit system, in Jakarta, Indonesia, leveraging a largescale bus network expansion between 2016-2020. Using detailed ridership data and aggregate travel flows from smartphone data, we analyze how new direct connections, changes in bus travel time, and wait time reductions increase ridership and overall trips. We set up and estimate a transit network demand model with multi-dimensional travel costs and idiosyncratic heterogeneity induced by random wait times, matching moments from the route launches. To study the implications for network design, we introduce a new framework to estimate optimal networks and how their characteristics depend on preference parameters. Our results suggest that a less concentrated TransJakarta network would increase ridership and commuter welfare.