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People want to walk safely, not new capital
Indeed traffic is a huge problem in Jakarta, but not because Jakarta is too big, but because it does not yet have a good public transport system.
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Alfini Lestari daringly blocks a group of motorcycles attempting to avoid traffic by riding along a sidewalk on Jl Sudirman in Jakarta on Monday. She took action to protest against the unruly bikers. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan)
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wo items in the news in the past few weeks have tempted many to comment. The first is the proposal to build a new capital outside of Jakarta, and the second is the comparatively little walking that typical Indonesians do. They are related.
One of the first people to call for a move of the capital that I heard in recent years was a Regional Representatives Council (DPD) member from Jakarta in 2008 who reasoned that Jakarta would be better able to develop its Betawi image if the pollies and government move elsewhere.
If I was Betawi, I would see plusses and minuses in moving the capital. More culture perhaps, less paying clients perhaps.
Other folks like the idea of moving the capital to be closer to the center of the country. This of course depends on how you measure distances and how you account for the number of people who have to travel back and forth.
Just measuring distance, Palangka Raya would seem to be more central. The people in distant places, Papua and Aceh for example, will travel a shorter distance to the Central Kalimantan capital than to Jakarta, provided they have a direct flight.
Papuans will still probably have to take an all-night flight home, making little significance of the saved time.
All the people of Java who are relatively closer to Jakarta will have to travel significantly further. I would guess that well over half those who visit Jakarta because it is the capital will have to travel further to a new capital, and that the average travel to the capital will probably be longer.
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