TheJakartaPost

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Jakarta Post

Beyond gridlock - get on your bike

  • The Jakarta Post

PREMIUM
  /   Tue, February 5 2008   /  11:45 am

Jakarta has enough roads to transport all its road users at a comfortable 30 to 50 km per hour. Everyday, more than three million residents reach their destinations without being stuck for hours in traffic jams. This residents make up more than half of the private vehicle users on Jakarta's roads but take up only one fifth of the road space. In energy terms their travel is as efficient as using the busway. Their vehicles take them door-to-door at only one tenth of the cost of a car to purchase, maintain and refuel. Simple changes could make it easier for them to travel more comfortably, safely and quickly to their destinations and would encourage more people to leave their cars at home. I am referring, of course, to motor bikes. Encouraging more bike use is undoubtedly the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to ease traffic congestion and move masses of people around ...