Ride-hailing Prices Increase, Will Users Switch to Public Transportation?

The government has officially raised online motorcycle taxi (ojol) fares following the increase in fuel prices. In response to this policy, most people say they will continue to use ojol, while a small percentage of ojol users will switch to public transportation.

A Polling Institute survey reveals that 29.1% of ojol users will continue using the service. 26.6% said they would switch to private motorcycles, 14% chose a combination of private motorcycles and ojol, and only 5.3% would switch to public transportation.

“Demand for ojol remains high. This shows how dependent urban communities are on online motorcycle taxis,” said Polling Institute Executive Director Kennedy Muslim, as reported by *Katadata.co.id*.

Kennedy stated that the increase in fuel prices makes ojol users hesitant to switch to private vehicles. “The group that will continue to use ojol includes women and those aged 31 and above,” he said. Kennedy also revealed that, assuming this general preference pattern remains constant among users who tend to switch to private motorcycles, the increase in fuel prices will at least discourage about 7-8% of ojol users from switching to their private motorcycles.

The Polling Institute survey, titled "The Increase in Online Motorcycle Taxi Fares in the Eyes of Users and Drivers," was conducted from August 16-24, 2022. The survey population consisted of residents aged 17 or older, or those who are married and are online motorcycle taxi users who had traveled at least one day in the past week.

From this population, a random sample (multistage random sampling) was selected with a base sample of 1,030 respondents proportionally distributed across 31 regencies/cities. An oversample of 190 respondents was then conducted among regular online motorcycle taxi users, resulting in a total analyzed sample of 1,220 respondents. The margin of error for the base sample size is +/- 3.1% at a 95% confidence level (assuming simple random sampling).