Car-free day on Sunday morning

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.