Efficient transportation means cleaner air<\/p>\n
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
There are numerous campaigns to get Jakartans to take part in
\ndealing with the city's air pollution. There is the Blue Sky
\ncampaign or the My Fresh Jakarta. Still, Jakarta continues to
\nrank among the world's dirtiest cities in terms of air pollution.<\/p>\n
Clean air programs have also been introduced by the
\ngovernment, the Jakarta administration and non-governmental
\norganizations (NGOs). But those programs have failed to
\nsignificantly reduce air pollution -- the air has not become
\nfresher or cleaner, nor the sky bluer.<\/p>\n
On the contrary, data from the City Environment Management
\nBoard (BPLHD) shows that the quality of Jakarta's air has gotten
\nworse in recent years.<\/p>\n
A refreshing move in the clean air campaign took place in 2001
\nwhen lead-free gasoline was supplied to all the gas stations in
\nGreater Jakarta, and people proudly began to show off \"meeting
\nemission standards\" stickers on their vehicles.<\/p>\n
Despite the few successes, hazardous substances like
\nparticulate molecular (PM), or dust particles with a diameter
\nmeasuring less than 10 microns, carbon dioxide (CO), hydrocarbon
\n(HC), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are still
\npolluting the air.<\/p>\n
According to health experts, HC and NO2 can cause lung cancer
\nand respiratory infections; CO and NO2 can cause heart problems;
\nwhile PM can cause cancer, bronchitis and respiratory problems.<\/p>\n
Reports by environmental organization Mitra Emisi Bersih
\n(Clean Air Partner) say the health costs of Jakarta's polluted
\nair reached some Rp 1.79 trillion in 1998. It was estimated this
\nfigure would be three times higher by 2015.<\/p>\n
According to a report in 2003 by the World Bank's Jakarta
\noffice, inflammation of the respiratory tract was the sixth
\nleading cause of death in the country, accounting for 6.2 percent
\nof all deaths in Indonesia. For Jakarta, it accounts for 12.6
\npercent of all deaths.<\/p>\n
What's wrong with the current clean air campaigns? They seem
\nto be based on the correct assumption: vehicle emissions are the
\nmain source of urban air pollution, as some 65 percent of
\ndangerous substances come from the vehicle exhaust.<\/p>\n
Analysts have noted two weaknesses in clean air campaigns that
\nonly target cleaning up vehicle exhaust emissions -- legal
\nconstraints and acute corruption in the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
Based on Law No. 14\/1992 on traffic and land transportation,
\nthe city authorities can only force public vehicles to comply
\nwith emission standard.<\/p>\n
The regulation is weak, considering that of the city's 4.97
\nmillion vehicles, some 1.5 million are private cars, 2.79 million
\nmotorcycles and only some 315,000 are public vehicles.<\/p>\n
So according to the law, legally the city administration can
\nonly control the emissions of some 315,000 public vehicles, while
\nthe rest of the vehicles are free to spray hazardous substances
\ninto the air.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta governor earlier tried to impose vehicle emission
\nstandards on private vehicles by issuing Decree No. 95\/2000, but
\nit was not effective. What is needed, according to the experts,
\nis a bylaw jointly issued by the governor and the City Council.<\/p>\n
Another problem is corrupt officials who fail to use their
\nauthority to force public vehicles to comply with emission
\nstandards, although emission tests are one of the requirements
\nfor roadworthy certificates. Reportedly, owners of public
\nvehicles only have to bribe the right officials to get a
\ncertificate, without having to bother with the tests.<\/p>\n
Transportation expert Jack Sumabrata of Pelangi, a green
\norganization that monitors global warming and air pollution, said
\nclean air campaigns should be linked to comprehensive efforts to
\nresolve transportation problems.<\/p>\n
Ahmad \"Puput\" Safrudin, a clean air campaigner from the Joint
\nCommittee for Leaded Gasoline Phase-out (KPBB), agreed, insisting
\nthat good traffic management was the key to cutting air pollution
\nin the city.<\/p>\n
Puput said there were two main reasons why poor traffic
\nmanagement worsened air pollution. First, vehicles trapped in
\ntraffic congestions release more hazardous emission. Second, too
\nmany vehicles on the streets release more pollutants into the
\nair.<\/p>\n
\"Cutting the number of vehicles, particularly private cars, on
\nthe streets must become a priority for the policymakers,\" Puput
\ntold The Jakarta Post recently.<\/p>\n
This is important, he said, because the majority of roads in
\nthe city are jammed with private cars with a small number of
\npassengers in them.<\/p>\n
\"The road section needed for each passenger on a city bus is
\nonly 0.75 square meters, while each private car passenger needs
\n3.3 square meters,\" Jack said, which means some 88 percent of
\nthe 7,563 kilometers of city roads are used by private cars and
\nmotorcycles.<\/p>\n
He also encouraged people to leave their vehicles at home and
\ntake public transportation.<\/p>\n
But people will ignore this suggestion unless the city
\nadministration improves the quality of public transportation
\nservices.<\/p>\n
\"How can upper or middle-class employees be encouraged to use
\npublic transportation when the administration fails to encourage
\ntransportation operators to improve the quality of their
\nservices,\" said Azas Tigor Nainggolan, chairman of the Jakarta
\nResidents Forum (Fakta).<\/p>\n
Given the poor quality of public transportation, Jack urged
\nthe administration to go ahead with the development of a mass
\nrapid transit (MRT) system, either in the form of a subway,
\nmonorail train or bus rapid transit (BRT), or busway.<\/p>\n
The city does, in fact, have a BRT project in development, and
\nhopes that it in fact helps resolve transportation woes here,
\ngiven the success of similar projects around the world.<\/p>\n
Lioyd Wright of the Bogota-based Institute for Transportation
\nand Development Policy said earlier a busway in a city could curb
\nthe emission of hazardous substances by up to 40 percent along
\nits routes, or corridors.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the Jakarta administration has not shown a
\nfixed concept for the project, as seen in the continuous
\nrevisions -- bus shelters, connecting bridges and also fuel --
\nalthough the project is scheduled to be launched in December.<\/p>\n
Environmentalists have also expressed concern the 60 buses
\nthat will be operated along the busway corridor, connecting Blok
\nM in South Jakarta and Kota in Central Jakarta, do not use fuel
\ngas, which is more environmentally friendly.<\/p>\n
Puput also doubted a statement by a city official that the
\nbuses would use clean Euro II diesel engines, saying the diesel
\nfuel produced in Indonesia was not compatible with these
\nenvironmentally friendly engines.<\/p>\n
Jack said Jakartans should continuously push the
\nadministration to improve the transportation system and services,
\nas this would help solve various problems, including worsening
\nair pollution.<\/p>\n
Transportation expert Bambang Susantono of the University of
\nIndonesia stressed that efforts to resolve transportation
\nproblems should also take into account the needs of people who
\nlive in neighboring cities like Bekasi, Bogor, Depok and
\nTangerang but work in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Cleaner air would not be the only positive impact of an
\nimproved transportation system, but there also would be an
\nimprovement in productivity, a reduction in the time needed to
\nget from place to place and safer roads.<\/p>\n
Wright said after the busway project was implemented in
\nBogota, fatal accidents were reduced by up to 93 percent, time
\nefficiency improved by 32 percent, and the satisfaction of
\npassengers rose 88 percent.<\/p>",
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