Like other pedestrians, 34-year-old Alfini Lestari is annoyed by this incursion into spaces that are supposed to be only for pedestrians.

But unlike many other pedestrians, she has dared to take action. A photo of her blocking bikers attempting to ride along a sidewalk on Jl. M.H. Thamrin in Central Jakarta on Monday was published on the front page of The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.  

The picture of a woman also went viral on social media with many netizens expressing appreciation for her courage.

However, some people suggested that she was just looking for attention and was only imitating Daffa Faros Oktoviarto, an elementary school student in Semarang, Central Java, who recently received a lot of press for taking similar action.

“It was a coincidence that there was a photographer who captured what I did,” she told thejakartapost.com on Tuesday.

Alfini, who has worked as a cook for a Japanese family in the Sultan Residence apartment block for the last three years, said that she often saw motorcycle riders using pedestrian walkways.

She observed that the violation against the traffic regulation had been worsening in the last two months, particularly after the Jakarta city administration removed the three-in-one traffic restriction, which has worsened congestion on Jl. M.H. Thamrin and Jl. Sudirman.

Alfini says she cannot resist taking action when she sees bikers using the sidewalk, and admitted that she has spontaneously confronted bikers several times upon seeing them riding on sidewalks.

She says that she does not care if the bikers throw insults at her, try to drive her off the sidewalk or tell her that she doesn’t own the sidewalks and should stop trying to be a hero.

 “I told them that they should be ashamed of themselves. They have their own roads but they still use the sidewalk,” said Alfini.

“I told them to get off the sidewalks, and said that if they didn’t want to get off, I would stand my ground […] I also told them that if they wanted to hit me I wasn’t scared,” she said adding that some bikers had returned to the road when they saw how persistent Alfini was.

She expressed hopes the police would enforce the law by cracking down on such traffic violations to ensure the sidewalks were free of inconsiderate bikers. (bbn)