After taking heat for violating the first '€œOne Day No Car'€ day last month, Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama rode a bicycle and a bus to the office on Friday.

Ahok, wearing a brown batik shirt, cycled from his home in Pantai Mutiara housing complex in North Jakarta to a nearby Transjakarta bus shelter at Pluit Reservoir.

'€œI am running a bit late because I had to have breakfast first,'€ he said, adding that he forgot that he would not be able to eat in the car as he usually did on the way to work.

Ahok took a Transjakarta bus serving the new route from Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) in North Jakarta to the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta. He arrived at City Hall around 8:30 a.m., more than one hour after he left his home.

'€œIt is more efficient to take a private car as I can reach the office in just 25 minutes. It took one hour by bus,'€ he said.

Last month, Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo declared the first Friday of every month '€œOne Day No Car'€ day, forbidding civil servants from driving to work.

Saying that he was technically not a civil servant, Ahok took his own car to work as usual. His decision triggered an outcry from the public in social media.

This time, the deputy governor said, that although it took longer to get to work, he did not mind leaving his car at home to promote the new Transjakarta route. '€œWe are now campaigning to encourage the middle and upper class to take public buses. We just have to make sure the bus lanes are [exclusive],'€ he said.

To reduce the number of private cars on the capital'€™s streets, Jokowi aims to launch 20 new Transjakarta routes connecting elite housing complexes to existing bus lanes.

Ahok said his tardiness, caused by traffic, proved the city needed to clear the Transjakarta lanes of unauthorized vehicles. '€œIf the travel time is the same, people will take private vehicles as they are more comfortable. However, if taking buses is faster, people will think twice about taking their own car,'€ he said.

Jokowi cycled all the way to City Hall from his official residence in Suropati Park, Central Jakarta, same as he had been doing every Friday. Jokowi also took a city administration bus along with aides and press to make his routine impromptu visits to residents.

In support of the program, the Jakarta Inspectorate conducted an unannounced audit on civil servants.

'€œWe wanted to gauge the level of compliance of Jakarta administration civil servants with the rule to not take private vehicles every first Friday of the month,'€ inspectorate official Roy Fernando Samosir said, as quoted by antaranews.com.

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