Ade Irma Suryani Nasution Traffic Garden: From a tropical garden to traffic school

Ade Irma Suryani Nasution Traffic Garden: From a tropical garden to traffic school

Arya Dipa, Contributor, Bandung

Several young housewives were absorbed in watching their children having fun with bumper cars on a fine Sunday at Ade Irma Suryani Nasution Traffic Garden (TLLAISN), on Jl. Belitung No. 1, Bandung.

About 10 bumper cars measuring about one meter by one meter were moving about, sometimes crashing into one another and causing the children and their mothers to burst into laughter, while the three people in charge of collecting the tickets and taking care of the arena looked on.

They would interfere only when the toy cars were entangled and could not move any longer.

Similar traffic congestion was also found in the cycling arena. Many children were neither aware of the traffic lights nor the single or double lanes of the track.

Dewi Indriyani, deputy administrator of TLLAISN Foundation, said that the traffic garden was specially designed in 1956 to allow children to learn how to use the roads properly.

Unfortunately, the chaos you witness in this arena reflects the traffic jams that you can find in Bandung city.

This traffic garden is not to be found elsewhere in Indonesia. Besides, with its large and rare trees, this garden, called Insulinde Garden (the Indonesia Garden) during the Dutch colonial administration, also serves as the lungs of Bandung city.

You can find in this garden angsana, mahogany, acacia and "sausage" trees (Kigelia aethiopica) or Leverworstboom in Dutch.

In an interview in the May 135th edition of Mooi Bandoeng (Beautiful Bandung), a Dutch landscape architect that helped design Insulinde Garden, Dr. L. Van der Pijl, said that the seeds of these "sausage" trees, measuring between 7 meters and 17 meters, were stolen by a Dutch resident of Bandung while on a trip in Honolulu, Hawaii. They are called sausage trees because of the shape of the tree.

Other trees you can find in this garden include Ki Hujan (the rain tree, Samanea saman Merr, Enterolobium saman Prain, Pithecolobium saman Benth) or Regenboom in Dutch. This tree is unique in that its leaves will shut and produce drops of water when the weather turns foul and the wind blows strongly.

From tropical garden to traffic garden

This garden, measuring about 3.5 hectares in area, is now being pushed way aside by the rapid progress of business in North Bandung.

In a book titled Semerak Bunga di Bandung Raya (Fragrance of Flowers in Greater Bandung), the late Haryoto Kunto, an expert in Bandung history, said that in 1898 the plot of land bordered by Jl. Aceh in the north, Jl. Belitung in the South, Jl. Kalimantan in the east and Jl. Sumatra in the west, used to be just a swamp where bamboo trees grew.

As it was then part of a military compound -- it now faces the headquarters of Military Region Command III Siliwangi -- this plot of land was often used as a site for military ceremonies and physical exercise for the soldiers.

However, between 1915 and 1919, the Dutch did not feel comfortable when the wet season changed into the dry season. The weather was no longer cool while the wind was blowing hard. In the dry season, the sun was very hot. That's why the Dutch residents of Bandung thought of establishing a public garden.

It is believed that the name Insulinde was conceived because the garden was surrounded by roads named after several major islands in Indonesia like Java, Sumatra, Riau, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Bali.

An association called Bandung Vooruit (Bandung Onward) was set up in 1920 as the fruit of the cooperation between the plantation owners, usually referred to as Preangerplanters and Gemeente Bandung, the Bandung municipality administration. This association, which was assigned to establish a public garden that would bring cool air to Bandung city, decided to establish a tropen aaccent or a tropical garden that would remind people of the rich tropical forest resources in Indonesia.

Besides Dr. L van der Pijl, other landscape architects involved in this undertaking were Dr. R. Teuscher and Dr. W. Docters van Leeuwen. The main concept was to design it as an open garden where city residents could walk freely and breathe fresh air.

They then selected the tropical plants that would be grown there. A canal runs through the gardens to drain excess water. To make the land humid and fertile, a lotus pond was made. Dr. L. van der Pijl noted in 1935 that about 90 species of trees and flowering plants were grown there.

After Indonesia became independent, the garden was handed over to the Indonesian government by the Dutch colonial administration.

After the handover, the management of the garden was left to Traffic Security Agency (BKLL) in 1954. This agency later took the initiative to turn the garden into a place where children could learn about traffic.

The traffic garden was opened to the public on March 1, 1958. Inside there were all the facilities that children could use to learn how to be proper road users. Right after entering the gate, a visitor can find a large board containing all the traffic signs.

The establishment of the traffic garden reflects the synergy of all elements in the community in their pursuit of a green area that can be educative.

Dewi, who has been deputy administrator of TLLAISN for the past decade, said that school children, cinema owners, employees, soldiers, automotive companies, policemen as well as other companies and shops in Bandung raised funds to build the garden.

The state railway company, Djawatan Kereta Api, now PT Kereta Api Indonesia, donated a mini train with two locomotives. The mini train is still functioning today.

"Back in 1958 the mini train used the engines of a Willis jeep for its locomotive. But in 1995 we replaced the engines with those of a Kijang van. However, this open-door train is still the original one made in Yogyakarta," Dewi said proudly.

Aside from a mini train, the traffic garden also has a draaimolen (merry-go-round), a swimming pool, a child care center and an arena for cycling and bumper cars.

Self-managed

To ensure that the management of the traffic garden would be more effective, the Bandung Traffic Garden Foundation was set up on June 26, 1960.

The traffic garden, which, since 1966, has been named after Ade Irma Suryani Nasution, one of the victims of the aborted Sept. 30, 1965 coup attempt, is now under the management of this foundation.

It is certainly no easy job to look after the traffic garden, which is now close to half a century old, and the old trees there. According to Dewi, the operational cost of running the garden, including the salaries of some 50 employees, adds up to no less than Rp 61 million a month.

"Despite their low pay, the employees have a strong sense of belonging. They check that the merry-go-round and the train engines are well-oiled every week," she said.

As for the old trees, Dewi said that they were actually easy to look after. These trees are regularly trimmed and the leaves and garbage scattering around them are removed every day.

The running of this traffic garden relies heavily on the proceeds from ticket sales.

On weekdays a ticket costs Rp 2,000 while at weekends and on holidays it costs Rp 3,000 per person. Luckily, an average of 500 visitors a day come to the traffic garden on weekdays while at weekends it is visited by some 3,000 visitors a day. During Idul Fitri holiday after the fasting month, for example, the number of visitors may even reach 10,000 people a day.

"As this garden is also considered one of the city parks, we receive a subsidy of Rp 30 million a year from the budget of Bandung municipal administration," Dewi added.