W

andering on foot along the sidewalks of Jl. Mahakam in South Jakarta provides Jakartans with an alternative vision of how life could be in the capital.

On most streets in the city the sidewalks are crammed and obstructed by street vendors, parked vehicles and broken paving.

On Jl. Mahakam, pedestrians can enjoy a stroll along the 5-meter-wide pathways under the shade of trees lining the road.

There are also special tracks installed for the disabled, a facility still lacking elsewhere in the city.

Lines of stalls also attract pedestrians on Jl. Mahakam and nearby Jl. Melawai and Jl. Barito, offering a lively street scene with shops directly connected to sidewalks.

However, even here there are still some parts that have large holes caused by ongoing renovation of the sidewalk.

“These will be for utility boxes into which we will put the utility cables currently strung up. While the other holes will be for greenery,” Riri Asnita, the planning division head of Jakarta’s Bina Marga road agency said, while pointing at the holes.

Riri represented the city administration in a campaign event on behalf of pedestrians last week. The event was a walking tour initiated by think tank Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and the Jakarta Good Guide.

The event was part of the city’s Bulan Patuh Trotoar (Orderly Sidewalk Month) campaign launched at the beginning of August in a bid to curb street vendors and motorists who often encroach on sidewalks that should be reserved for pedestrian use.

Many of the city’s sidewalks are currently undergoing revitalization work as part of efforts to create a “walkable Jakarta,” Riri said.

Despite street vendors frequently occupying sidewalks and getting in the way of pedestrians, they can nevertheless be attractions for an active street frontage, Riri said, provided they are well managed.

“People feel happy while walking as they can stop for street food or browse at stalls,” she said, adding that her office was currently in talks with relevant agencies to organize the vendors.

Humid weather, pollution and barely walkable sidewalks are often blamed for Jakarta residents’ reluctance to move about the city on foot.

Research conducted by Stanford University published last month reported that Indonesia is the world’s least-active country when it comes to walking.

The capital city only had 540 kilometers of sidewalks, according to data from the Jakarta Central Statistics Agency (BPS DKI) in 2013.

Residents and activists have lambasted the city administration’s policies, which they claim favor motorists rather than pedestrians, as seen in the comparative figure of nearly 7,000 kilometers of roads.

Since 2015, the city administration has begun improving sidewalks. By 2016, the city had improved and added a total of 46 kilometers of sidewalks in five municipalities with a total budget of Rp 150 billion (US$11.2 million).

This year, the city aims to improve another 80 kilometers with a bigger budget of Rp 412 billion.

Next year, the agency will focus on developing sidewalks on the city’s main thoroughfares of Jl. Sudirman and Jl. MH Thamrin as it gears up for the launch of the long-awaited Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system.

Meanwhile, Deliani Poetriayu Siregar from ITDP said encouraging street vendors to coexist on the street was a good idea in creating an active street frontage.

However, she pointed out that the city administration needed to be firm in managing them as frequently street vendors were among the worst offenders in hogging pedestrian space.