TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Tilted, disjointed bridges make life harder for city’s pedestrians
Find another way: A man walks past a banner warning against the use of a footbridge in Daan Mogot, Jakarta, on Friday
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
F
ind another way: A man walks past a banner warning against the use of a footbridge in Daan Mogot, Jakarta, on Friday. No repair work has been carried out for the past year on the bridge, the poor condition of which has been exacerbated by a recent collision. (JP/David Caessarre)
Jakarta is not known as a pedestrian-friendly city, with pedestrians mostly being given the option of ascending tall footbridges to cross the city’s chaotic roads.
But some of the city’s footbridges are in such disrepair that pedestrians often end up jaywalking and doing other risky things to get across roads.
Wawa, a resident of Kalideres, West Jakarta, is one of those pedestrians.
On Friday afternoon, the 69-year-old woman had to cross the busy Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta to get to a bus stop located in the middle of the road.
With the assistance of a Transjakarta employee, the elderly woman had to climb a chest-high fence to enter the Dispenda Transjakarta bus stop.
Climbing a fence is not an easy task for a woman her age.
But Wawa, who just finished renewing her vehicle registration document (STNK) at the West Jakarta Vehicle Document Registration Center (Samsat), had no other choice because half of the pedestrian bridge was closed after an accident on Sunday.
“I really hope the footbridge can be fixed soon. I have gone back and forth to Samsat over the past two days to complete documents for my STNK. That means I’ve climbed the fence several times. Thank God I’m a fit woman,” she said.
While some passengers preferred climbing the fence, others, especially women wearing skirts, decided to get to the bus stop from the other side. But that means they have to cross the street from another location where no Transjakarta officers can help them cross the road.
It is thus farther and more dangerous, but what choice do they have? The pedestrian bridge was hit by a truck carrying dirt at 1 a.m. on Sunday, causing its column to be tilted and disjointed from the upper walkway.
About 2 kilometers from the Dispenda bus stop, another bus stop sits damaged.
Half of the Jembatan Gantung Transjakarta bus stop is gone after being hit by a truck in July last year. There, pedestrians were also forced to jaywalk to get to the bus stop.
The head of the maintenance section at the Jakarta Bina Marga Road Agency, Hans Mahendra, said the agency was still trying to fix both footbridges.
“For the Dispenda footbridge, we have taken emergency measures by making a crosswalk to facilitate passengers crossing the street. We will repair it soon,” Hans said.
Even though the Jakarta administration has allocated Rp 15 billion (US$1 million) in the 2018 city budget for the maintenance and renovation of footbridges across Jakarta, Bina Marga has yet to finish renovating the Jembatan Gantung footbridge because of problems related to the tender process.
Hans said initially Bina Marga tried to tender the project through the National Public Procurement Agency’s (LKPP) Competitive Catalogue (Comcat) program. However, Bina Marga changed its plan recently as a result of some problems in the Comcat system.
Bina Marga was still on its way to hold tender projects related to the renovation of some footbridges in the city, he said.
Many pedestrian bridges in Jakarta are in poor condition and unsafe for pedestrians, especially for the disabled and elderly, according to the Pedestrians Coalition.
Ramps installed on some of the bus stops, including a footbridge in Semanggi, for instance, could not be used by the disabled because of its width and slope.
The Pedestrians Coalition said at least 30 of about 300 pedestrian bridges in Jakarta, including on Jl. Gatot Subroto and Jl. TB Simatupang in South Jakarta and in Kampung Bandan in North Jakarta, were in poor
condition.
Lately, residents around the Kampung Bandan railway station said they were afraid to cross the pedestrian bridge connecting the station with Jl. Gunung Sahari in North Jakarta as over 10 electricity cables were entangled with the bridge.
Pedestrian Coalition chairman Alfred Sitorus said the city administration should check all footbridges in Jakarta to see their conditions and decide whether they had to be replaced with pelican crossings or just renovated.
“The city administration should hold a thorough assessment of all footbridges in the capital. If the renovation project is conducted without a good plan, the erected footbridge won’t be effective or durable,” he said.
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has said he preferred facilitating pedestrians with pelican crossings.
He has inaugurated pelican crossings in front of the Wisma Nusantara building and the Bank Indonesia building on Jl. MH Thamrin in an attempt to provide ease and convenience for the disabled, the elderly and pregnant women.
Despite the development of some pelican crossings, Hans said the city administration should conduct further studies to see which areas should be served by footbridges or pelican crossings by considering the traffic condition in the areas.
Meanwhile, the city administration has scrapped a budget for the construction of eight new footbridges in the capital as it failed to procure land for the project.
Bina Marga just succeeded in building two new footbridges in Jelambar, West Jakarta, and on Jl. Sumarno, East Jakarta. Both footbridges, worth Rp 11.7 billion, will be completed with elevators for the disabled.
