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.

Jakarta Flooded AGAIN!

Jakarta Flood November 2007

Jakarta is the capitol city of Indonesia. It is the most populated city yet the place where the most money rolling. Last year, Jakarta drowned and the economy stuck for almost a week. And now the indication of such thing will occur again is increasing. Last week, there were several place in Jakarta flooded for almost 1 meter high. And since it is yet the peak of raining season, we can imagine what will happen if it is the peak of raining season.

I wonder what the government did for the recent months. Didn’t they do something to avoid this? Yesterday, I heard the news that only 5 of 12 water pump controlling the flood canal were working. The others had been broken down and they still trying to fix it. This is what I didn’t like. They keep TRYing to avoid the flood. When it is almost the time to raining season, they begin to try to do something to eliminate the effect. But I guess that’s not what we want right? We all want the government DO the right thing. Sometimes we hear that they are willing to do something. But what’s the result? I guess there are too much talking and poor action. So stop TRYing and start DOing. Sometimes we don’t realize that we are the reason why the flood keep coming. We always blame the government of poor precautious action. But who realize that all of us should be responsible for the flood. When were the last time we throw the garbage through our own car side window? When were the last time people throwing garbage to the river? To make Indonesia better, all of Indonesian people should be involved. Let’s do something good for our country. We LOVE Indonesia. Be blessed Indonesia!