Fauzi Bowo's Policy against Bicycle Roadway in Jakarta

Recently, I read the newspaper and the headline grabbed my attention. It was ‘Bike to Work’ campaign and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia, with his wife, some of minister along with Fauzi Bowo; Jakarta’s latest chosen governor were promoting it. Jakarta’s streets lately has become more and more crowded, from the small street to the large road, even the highway; almost all of them jam on high traffic time, that is while people go to work and go back from work. We know that a large number of the people working in Jakarta don’t stay at that city. They stay at satellite cities; Depok, Bogor, Bekasi, Tangerang, and other surrounding ones. That’s the reason why the government promoted the ‘Bike to Work’ campaign. That’s all good right? Just imagine the loss we suffer from the traffic jam. They said that more than 1bil. Rp is wasted every hour. What a huge number! Pollutants, health and psychological aspect is also affected. So bike to work campaign is all for good right?

I’m for the campaign but I have some question to ask. How can people go to work by bike as their house is located outside of Jakarta. Should they cycle their bike for 20-30 km? Insane! I think the government doesn’t well prepared for their campaign. It’s better if they provide several massive parking lots in Jakarta’s gateway. So outsiders can park their car, then cycle their bike. Or if the location is too far, there are convenient and clean public transportation to facilitate them so they can stop at the bicycle parking lot and cycle to their office. But for this idea, it really needs a scattered strategic areas of bicycle parking lot, massive parking lots in Jakarta gateway and real convenient public transportation. That means it really needs a HUGE amount of money.

I guess the ‘Bike to Work’ idea is for those who live in Jakarta. For those whose house are located less or equal to 5km from their office. Fauzi Bowo said that he won’t build any bicycle roadway in Jakarta if the bicycle quantity below 1mil. Yet, today there are only 3k cyclers around the city. This is what I’m ridicule at. I think if he wants people to go to work by bike, he should provide the facilities first (such as bicycle roadway) then he could expect an increasing number of people cycle to work. Just wait and see what is he going to do then.