Car-free day on Sunday morning

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Environmental activists asked city residents to reduce the use of private cars and use of other transportation, such as public transport and non-motorized vehicles, as a small effort to have cleaner air in the city.

Several environmental organizations will hold a three-hour 2002 Jakarta Car Free Day on Sunday as a part of UN-backed World Car Free Days around the globe.

"This program does not designate a specific date as long as a city calls it a car free day," Ari Mohammad of Swisscontact told reporters on Thursday.

"We hope this program will be able to provide cleaner air no matter how small this program is," he added.

During the program on Sunday, private cars will be prohibited to use the slow lanes of Jl. Sudirman from around the Youth Movement statue in South Jakarta up to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta.

Public transportation, however, will still be allowed to ply the route.

The program starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 10 a.m.

Ari admitted the program was limited to give a significant result but emphasized that it was only a starting point.

"We cannot start with a larger area or longer time as there might be strong resistance from the public."

"This is just a stepping stone as we can extend the program next year if the Sunday's program is successful," he said.

Other environmental organizations supporting the program include the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia, the Joint Committee for Leaded Fuel Phase-Out (KPBB), Pelangi and the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi).

Several university-based environmental organizations have also pledged their support.

Meanwhile, Achmad Syarifuddin an official of KPBB, said the most important thing was to convey the message to urge residents to reduce the use of private cars.

"This is a starting strategy for a very long campaign."

"We can, for example, walk for a distance up to one kilometer and ride a bicycle for a distance up to three kilometers," he said.

Jakarta has four million private cars and motorcycles, 5,411 large buses, 4,981 medium-sized buses and 11,848 public minivans, while its roads amounting to 6,500 kilometers in length.

The organizers planned to set up a stage near the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle with various clean-air-related games, performances and talk shows.