Infrastructure development won't solve Jakarta's problems

Infrastructure development won't solve Jakarta's problems

By Vincent Lingga

World renown architect and city planner Desmond Muirhead
shared his ideas about the greater Jakarta area development in a
recent interview with The Jakarta Post.

JAKARTA (JP): The high rate of urbanization that is far
outpacing the development of infrastructure is not unique to
Jakarta whose 255.2 square mile (650 square km) area is now
populated by around 8.5 million people.

Traffic congestion, housing shortages and environmental
pollution are in fact endemic to almost all cities in developing
countries.

"But the problems cannot be solved by large-scale development
of infrastructure alone," says Desmond Muirhead who has planned
and designed numerous real estate projects all over the world,
including the Lippo Village near Tangerang in West Java.

Muirhead, who is also recognized worldwide as a leading golf-
course designer, says the city's problems should be attacked by
simultaneously improving the public transport system, restricting
the flow of private cars to congestion areas and by enhancing the
development of multiple urban centers.

Highlights of the interview are as follows:

Question: As an experienced city planner and architect, how do
you see Jakarta?

Answer: I am generally impressed with Jakarta. It has broad
streets. But its great virtue as a city is its people who are
surely some of the most friendly, charming, natural, most-relaxed
people in the world. After all, cities are about meeting new
people, choice of different jobs, social interaction.

We should enhance this quality and not destroy it. But at the
current rate of urbanization you are going to have problems.
Therefore, Jakarta should put increasing emphasis on planning and
urban design now. You should plan for 25 years and not for 25
months.

Cities today are in competition with each other
internationally for industry, trade, information, tourism and
unless there is very good planning and traffic control Jakarta
will lose out to other cities who have better control of their
destinies. Thus the poor in Jakarta could become much poorer and
the rich will have less attractive lives.

You may have noticed that traffic congestion in Jakarta has
been worsening, causing large wastes of productive time and fuel,
and air pollution. What measures of traffic engineering and
management do you think the city administration should take?

First of all, I think the growth in the traffic volume should
be reduced in the short term through a mixture of measures.
Motorists will suffer a little but anything is better than
gridlock. Restricting lane traffic in congestion prone areas for
private cars with more than one passenger is one method. Imposing
economic charges for parking could be tried. Exclusive bus lanes
are useful. Congestion charging is another method. Closing some
central area streets to vehicular traffic at peak periods merits
consideration.

All these measures will be able to alleviate but not cure
congestion. You need a fully-coordinated traffic management
system, integrating public and private-sector transportation.

Hence, the city government should plan a mass rapid transit
system and suburban rail service.

Simply moving complexes of housings to the outskirts will only
move congestion from one area to another.

But the problem is that Jakarta, like most other cities in
developing countries, is largely characterized by a central
business district which has the highest accessibility of the city
area. And as the city grows, more workers tend to live farther
from their work, thereby lengthening and increasing daily trips.

I think what is happening here is very much similar to those
in major cities in the developed countries. In the United States,
for example, automobiles prompted a great exodus from the cities
to the suburbs in the 1950s. In the 1960s, the shops and
department stores followed as the people got tired of congested
traffic driving downtown to go shopping. Beginning in the 1970s,
jobs followed the people into the suburbs.

The question is why Jakarta should wait for such a natural
evolution and go through the same mistakes? Why not plan the
process right now to manage the evolution in an orderly manner.
Modern telecommunications and information technology now
available could help accelerate the process.

I think Jakarta needs to enhance the development of satellite
cities or multiple urban centers to reduce overcrowding in the
city proper. This concept covers the movement not only of housing
and shopping facilities but jobs as well. That is precisely what
we are developing in the Lippo Village, integrating employment,
residences and all public facilities and services in a self-
contained urban center.

The Lippo Village near Tangerang, West Java, is being
developed into a 500-hectare richly landscaped town complete with
all public facilities and services for a fully integrated
community life.

Designed to be a town for more than 50,000 people, the Lippo
Village already boasts the country's largest international school
and will, by its completion within the next few years, have
Indonesia's largest shopping mall, an international hospital, a
country club for 5,000 members, a 204-room international hotel
and several office blocks, condominiums and thousands of
individual houses.

How do you think the development of satellite cities could be
accelerated?

Hopefully, more private investors will be interested in
developing such satellite cities around Jakarta. What the
government should do is develop public transport networks to
ensure mutual accessibility to the various urban centers.

Hence, the promotion of new satellite cities with adequate
accessibility to attract part of the activities crowding into the
central business district in Jakarta requires the building of
infrastructure, including transport facilities, to radiate from
the new nodal points.

But a note of caution is in order here. Zoning regulations
will not encourage the development of satellite cities. The
process should be left to the supply-demand forces.

However, the development of satellite cities should also be
supported by a more adequate siting of the airport. An airport,
for example, should be planned together with the development of
new multiple urban centers. Such a huge city as Jakarta actually
needs more than one airport. But if the resources are not
available for building a satellite airport within the medium term
period of time, you should at least have a rail transport system
to the existing airport.

Window A: You need a fully-coordinated traffic management system,
integrating public and private-sector transportation.

Window B: The government should develop public transport networks to
ensure mutual accessibility to the various urban centers.