Jakarta needs multifunction zoning: Experts
Jakarta needs multifunction zoning: Experts
JAKARTA (JP): Multifunction zoning and a wider use of mass transport are the key to solve Jakarta's horrendous traffic congestion, a foreign city planner and urban expert disclosed yesterday.
"To overcome the traffic problem, Jakarta should develop highly diversified areas where there are offices, public facilities and houses of the low and high communities," Peter Droege, the chairman of urban design of the University of Sydney, Australia, said yesterday.
Droege spoke yesterday at a one-day seminar on urban development organized by the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology.
He said Jakarta's city planning is not well structured in that business offices and public facilities are located far away from residential areas.
"Too many people come from too many places to the same destination at almost the same time which has greatly contributed to the traffic problems," he said.
A multifunction zoning system is a community structure where people of all layers live together in an area not far from working places and public facilities, he explained.
Droege said that nowadays more and more people have to live in the outskirts of Jakarta as they cannot afford to buy houses in the city proper. As a result they have to spend much time on their way to work.
"The city has too many offices, banks, and entertainment places for the wealthy people and barely has enough housing complexes for the low and middle class communities," he added.
Public transport
According to him the low and middle income people are important entities of economic development since they constitute the major users of public transport.
"A diversified area needs all levels of society to live together including the low-income workers," Droege said.
He said such zoning would obviously require much financial support as well as intelligent design control to prevent pollution and security problems.
Chief of the Department of Urban Heritage of the City Administration Wisnu Murti Ardjo told The Jakarta Post yesterday that local authorities are planning to apply more multifunction zoning systems in the near future.
According to Wisnu, the authorities have so far applied the policy of retaining diversification in one area.
Citing an example, he said, the Jl.MH Thamrin area in Central Jakarta has met all the requirements needed for the system.
Besides hotels, offices, and business centers, there are housing complexes located nearby, including low-cost apartments in Kebon Kacang and Tanah Abang as well as residential areas in Kebon Sirih and Kampung Bali.
"We have for a long time implemented the land mix use system but that it should be more effective than today so that more and more people can live in the area," he said.
The experts reached a common view yesterday on the efforts of solving traffic congestion by extending the mass transit system.
State Minister of Research and Technology, B.J. Habibie, said at the opening of the meeting that, besides freeways, an underground transportation system would be an alternative to solving the city's traffic problems.
"We have not used the underground dimension alternative which is the key for the traffic problem especially in urban areas," Habibie said. (03)