Car Free Day to be no busman's holiday

Bambang Nurbianto and Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta minus thousands of private cars equals better traffic conditions and much less smog. That is the hope of many citizens in welcoming the second annual Car Free Day in the city on Sunday, which is also to commemorate the World Car Free Day, which falls on Monday.

"Banning private cars on Jakarta's major thoroughfares is a good idea but only if the city can provide affordable, reliable, safe and convenient public transportation," said Achmad, a 26- year-old manager at a multinational company, who drives a car everyday to his office on Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Central Jakarta.

He was both supporting and criticizing Sunday's commemoration of banning cars from entering Jl. Jend. Sudirman to Jl. M.H. Thamrin in Central Jakarta from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m.

It is a joint event staged by several non-governmental organizations as part of the Clean Emissions Partner Forum (FMEB), the Jakarta administration and the Office of the State Minister for the Environment.

Assistant to city secretary for development affairs, Irzal Djamal, said that the programs were to increase Jakartans' awareness that the air pollution in the capital had reached an alarming level and it had been caused by the rapidly increasing number of private cars.

Achmad said that if the people could not drive their cars on working days, it would cause a lot of inconvenience, as did the car-pooling program or the alternate days plan, depending on license plate numbers, that Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso earlier proposed, because most people so loathed taking local public buses.

"The problem is that the city doesn't have proper public transportation," he said, adding that most people working from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in offices in the Golden Triangle -- covering Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Jl. M.H. Thamrin, Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said and Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto -- really should not need to use their cars.

"However, most people have been forced to buy cars due to the poor public transportation," he said.

Eli, 30, a researcher working in an office on Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said, hoped that the city could provide better transportation.

"Only then, will people leave their cars at home," she said.

But businessman Razak, 29, doubted that the people, particularly bosses and decisionmakers whose offices are in the Golden Triangle, would take part in such a movement by leaving their luxury cars back home.

Razak called on the administration officials to convince the people to reduce the use of private cars.

"How? Ultimately by giving the perfect example," he said.