Leave the car at home

While regulations to curb air pollution and the Gubernatorial Decree on smoking have yet to come into effect, Jakartans should be aware of another clean-air drive called Car Free Day.

The campaign may be little known to Indonesians, especially Jakartans, despite the fact that the capital city has celebrated the event -- which is celebrated by 100 million people in more than 1,500 cities in 40 countries every Sept. 22 -- three times.

To boost the echo of the environmental campaign, dozens of people gathered on Thursday at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout to distribute leaflets to motorists, informing them that Car Free Day will be celebrated in Jakarta on Oct. 2. Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin will be closed to private vehicles during the campaign.

Car Free Day was introduced in 1998 in France, and is aimed at decreasing car dependence. The move has become quite popular with ever more people worldwide aware of its benefits.

For the people of Canada, Car Free Day has become very popular indeed as they have enjoyed the benefits of the campaign. In Montreal, for example, data recorded from the 2003 campaign indicated that Car Free Day was a success with 40 percent emission reductions, a 10 percent increase in mass transit commuters and 95 percent of the people surveyed wanted the event repeated in 2004.

A similar event in Jakarta was also called a success in 2004. One day without cars in 2004 in Jakarta saw a 20 percent decrease in air pollution.

Despite these successes, only a few people seem to be fully aware of or informed enough about the heavy costs of automobile dependence. Records indicate there were approximately 70 million cars, trucks and buses in the world in 1950. The number grew by nine times by 1994, or 630 million -- which since 1970 has been growing at the rate of 16 million vehicles per annum.

Experts fear that if this growth continues unabated, by the year of 2025 there will be over 1 billion motor vehicles on the world's roads. They consume 37 million barrels of oil a day, or half of the world's petroleum consumption. Thus, they are responsible for nearly half of the world's air pollution and at least one-third of our greenhouse gas emissions.

Unfortunately, for Jakarta, whose air pollution is mostly caused by vehicle emissions, significant efforts to curb the growth of car and motorcycle ownership have yet to be produced.

With at least two million cars and 4.5 million motorcycles plying Jakarta's roads each day, the administration must do something.

After producing air pollution regulations and a Gubernatorial Decree on smoking, the administration must work harder to educate people about Car Free Day. There must be constant and persistent efforts to raise people's awareness of the need of cleaner air.

The administration should, however, acknowledge that unlike Montreal or Bogota, for example, Car Free Day could become a problem for car owners in Jakarta.

Cars remain a status symbol and mean independence for most car owners in Jakarta, while the public transportation system is not yet dependable in terms of safety and comfort.

With the number of cars growing by 7 percent annually -- 15 percent for motorcycles -- ground transportation in teeming Jakarta will be even more chaotic in the coming years. Poor law enforcement and the absence of control of the growing number of vehicles have been deteriorating the city's ground transportation system.

It is therefore hoped that Car Free Day could become a reminder to the city managers that little has been done to improve shabby public transportation.

People should also be made more aware that decreasing car dependence is undoubtedly a great thing to help ease traffic and improve the environment.

The green campaign conducted by Jakarta authorities, by measuring emissions, is in fact not enough to curb air pollution. According to the World Carfree Network, cars -- whether labeled clean, green or otherwise, have become one of the main causes of injury and death in almost every nation. Motor vehicle traffic kills four times as many people as wars -- 1.26 million people a year. That is more than 3,000 people killed on the world's roads each day; not even counting the contribution to respiratory- related diseases.

So, let us all try to leave our cars at home just for one day.