Jakarta cancels 'No Car Day'

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 07/21/2007 11:32 AM  |  Jakarta

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For a while it looked like Jakartans would begin to breathe cleaner air on Saturday, with motorized vehicles to be banned from entering the Old Town area in West Jakarta.

But at the last minute, the city administration decided to cancel its ground-breaking ""No Car Day"" project -- because the preparations were not complete.

""We were informed by the organizer at a Friday meeting that it had been canceled due to technical problems"" Yosiono Anwar Supalal, an official at the air control division of the City Environmental Management Board said Friday.

No Car Day is part of the 2005 Air Pollution Control Bylaw, which requires the administration to hold the event once a month as part of a campaign to reduce dependency on private vehicles.

The West Jakarta municipality was to close streets around the Old Town area from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. and then measure the level of air pollution in the area to determine how much was produced by private cars.

Yosiono said No Car Day would be held in North Jakarta in August and then around Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta in September.

International Car Free Day falls on Sept. 22. The concept was first introduced in France in 1998 but has quickly become popular in other countries.

In Bogota, Sundays are car-free days.

Green activists have organized car-free days in Jakarta, one of the world's most polluted cities, since 2002, but the events were only held on Sundays in the city's main thoroughfares from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., when much of the population is at home.

It was reported that pollution levels dropped by 20-30 percent during the events.

Jakarta has long been under pressure to improve its air quality.

As of April this year, there had only been 23 days of ""good"" air.

Last year, there were only 45 ""good air"" days in Jakarta, far lower than the 108 days recorded in 2000.

The administration has said poor fuel quality and rising ownership of private cars had contributed greatly to the city's air pollution.

It said there were at least 2.5 million private cars compared to only 255,000 public transportation vehicles in the city.

Clean Air Project Swisscontact expressed concern over the cancellation, saying it would further discourage people from switching to public transportation.

""We regret the cancellation because the administration has made a massive campaign for the planned No Car Day. It's going to be difficult to grab public attention if they are going to hold it next month,"" he said.

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