Car Free Day to be no busman's holiday
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.