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Jakarta Post

Editorial: Protecting pedestrians

An alleged rape incident on a footbridge in front of a hypermarket in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta last week has revived old concerns about the safety of pedestrians, especially women, in Jakarta

The Jakarta Post
Sat, November 28, 2015

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Editorial: Protecting pedestrians

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n alleged rape incident on a footbridge in front of a hypermarket in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta last week has revived old concerns about the safety of pedestrians, especially women, in Jakarta.

It was still afternoon when an employee was reportedly robbed and raped as she was walking across the very high, long pedestrian bridge, which constitutes an arduous journey for anyone wishing to cross the road. Apart from its serious ergonomic problems, the bridge is also seems to be a hotspot for crime.

Pedestrian bridges, especially ones with low foot traffic, low maintenance, poor lighting and advertising billboards concealing the pedestrians from view have several times been a cause for concern to all residents, not only women.

In August this year, a woman reported that a stranger had assaulted her on the Jati Padang footbridge in South Jakarta after she got off a Transjakarta bus one Saturday morning. In June last year, a woman fell victim to an assault and attempted rape on a pedestrian bridge in front of her office in Cilandak, South Jakarta. The perpetrator fled the scene after other pedestrians approached.

To prevent these crimes, the city could dismantle all the billboards on bridges that compromise the safety of pedestrians and make sure the lighting on every bridge works. But those measures are not enough to protect pedestrians as the facts have shown that crimes still take place during daylight hours on billboard free bridges.

This raises a difficult question as to why pedestrians, men or women, have to walk an extra mile, climb high bridges and risk their safety to travel around the city.

Pedestrian bridges across roads are supposedly built to ensure the safety of pedestrians, however, for pedestrians wishing to use them, a new threat awaits. Why do pedestrians have to bear the brunt of the city'€™s vehicle-prioritizing urban planning while it is not difficult at all for drivers to slow down and stop to let pedestrians walk across a zebra or pelican crossing?

Internationally famous mayor of Bogota Enrique Peñalosa, who served the 1998 to 2001 term and was reelected for 2016 to 2019, has been an avid advocate of equitable city, including equality on streets.

According to New York-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), where Peñalosa is a senior international adviser, pedestrians must be the top of the priority of a city'€™s urban planning, preceding bicycles, public transportation and lastly, private vehicles.

As Peñalosa puts it, an advanced city is not a place where the poor move about in cars; rather, it'€™s when even the rich use public transportation. Naturally, using public transport generally requires some walking. One might add that an advanced city is also a place that uses pedestrian bridges sparingly.

Using Peñalosa'€™s standard, Jakarta is far from advanced and in fact its car culture makes the capital look backward. The women and men who have been victims of crimes on the city'€™s poorly designed and maintained pedestrian bridges are a testimony to the backwardness of this style of urban planning.

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