In celebration of Jakarta's blossoming of bicycles

In celebration of Jakarta's blossoming of bicycles

By Tim McHargue

JAKARTA (JP): Early one Sunday morning I witnessed a seemingly endless parade of bicyclists pedaling down Metro Pondok Indah in South Jakarta.

The bike riders were decorated in a glorious array of colorful lycra, gaily greeting the dawn. Short pants and shirts, gloves and helmets, sun visors and sun glasses, shoes and socks were all in the blindingly bright (for such an early hour) neon and fluorescent hues preferred by the new breed of cyclists.

For a moment, the drab stretch of Jakarta road looked as if it had suddenly sprouted magnificent flowers, conquering the usually smoggy and congested Jakarta thoroughfare.

The few passing cars were sorely out of place, boring intrusions in the pleasant sight of hundreds of purple, yellow, pink, crimson and rain forest green cyclists heading toward the city center. It seemed an ecologist's dream come true.

Soon after, I discovered that Jl. MH. Thamrin is closed on Sunday mornings, and that scores and scores of bicyclists flock down the road, pedaling between the skyscrapers, to the National Monument (Monas).

It is a sign of a burgeoning environmental awareness that so many Jakartans have recently embraced the bicycle. It is also a sign of political progress that city officials have seen fit to surrender a thoroughfare to the pleasure of pedalers and pedestrians.

Not long ago, I participated in an exciting annual event in San Francisco, California. Every year San Francisco surrenders the freeways which ring the "City By The Bay" to 12,000 bicyclists for half a day. I had the pleasure, which approached a "peak experience", of pedaling on the freeways with this mass of cyclists, enjoying a brilliant San Francisco Sunday morning with an outstanding view of the blue waters on the Bay, the sun-framed Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands in the distance.

The Sunday parade of bicyclists in Pondok Indah made me think it would be great if a similar event took place in Jakarta, where exhaust spews from millions of mufflers and bicyclists are routinely subjected to near-death experiences as they compete against an array of vehicles for a fragment of pavement.

Legislation requiring emission control devices would be even better. It would significantly improve the environmental and esthetic quality of the Jakarta landscape.

It would certainly make bicycling the streets of Indonesia's capital city much less toxic. Inhaling carbon monoxide cocktails, while huffing and puffing, shouldn't be a requirement for sacking the automobile and navigating under one's own power.

It is encouraging that city officials, along with ordinary citizens, are attempting to adjust to the increased interest in recreational cycling through the streets and across the countryside. An activity which has swept the world, the surge of cycling enthusiasts requires some degree of adjustment and accommodation. Safety is one concern and access another.

On a recent excursion to Bogor, I tried to get into the Botanical Garden on my bicycle, intending to leisurely pedal and enjoy the pleasant surroundings away from the snap and snarl of traffic.

The ticket taker informed me that on Sunday and holidays cars and bicycles were not permitted in the park. I then inquired about the policy during weekdays.

"Cars and people, but no bicycles," was the gentleman's terse reply.

The logic of banning bicycles from the area, while allowing cars, escaped me entirely. The attendant tried to console me with the fact that there were steep hills which would make cycling difficult in the park. He obviously had little understanding of what mountain bikes are all about, but I decided that further discussion would prove futile. At some future date I would return, when someone in power had embraced the concept of biking in the park and had discarded the no-bike policy.

I have had similar experiences at Cibodas Gardens, Mt. Gede National Park and Taman Safari. In the case of Taman Safari, I understood, after visiting the park later, the reason an attendant refused me admittance and mimicked tigers with his hands.

I still argue that, with certain accommodations, it might be possible to pedal through the Safari park. I do love adventure when I ride, although the large mammal enclosures may present a bit too much of a challenge.

The fact that recreational bike riding was considered a suicidal death wish as recently as a year ago, but now there is a proliferation of bicyclists power pedaling into the smoggy fray, increases my optimism that Jakarta is slowly moving toward allowing bicyclists equal, and non-toxic, access.

It will still take some major restructuring of civic ordinances and a re-thinking of many obsolete concepts before this town becomes a bike haven. But if the power brokers are interested in making Jakarta a more humane and livable place, the city should continue to move in that direction.

I found further encouragement in a large billboard of President and Mrs. Soeharto sitting on a pair of bicycles. While bicyclists organize a grassroots campaign to make their presence felt and their desires known, it can't hurt to see the country's leader pedaling with a smile on his face.

It will be a long time, and a major shift in political and environmental consciousness, before Jakarta city planners truly make the capital bicycle friendly. But the dazzling sight presented to me early that Sunday morning, that festive blossoming of bicyclists, was indeed cause for celebration.