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‘Instagrammable’ footbridges now open
New wave: Pedestrians use the newly completed crossing bridge over Jl
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ew wave: Pedestrians use the newly completed crossing bridge over Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta on Thursday. Officially inaugurated by Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan on Thursday, the bridge connects Senayan with Sudirman Central Business District.(JP/Iqbal Yuwansyah)
As university student Diandra, 25, walks across one of the newly opened footbridges on Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta, she holds her smartphone firmly in front of her to record everything she sees during the short trip that would take her to Ratu Plaza shopping mall.
She cannot wait to share her footage of the futuristic bridge on Instagram Stories for all her followers to see.
The experience, she told The Jakarta Post on Thursday, was “Instagram-worthy”.
“The new footbridge is very aesthetically pleasing. It has wooden flooring, so it does not make a lot of noise when people walk across it,” Diandra explained. “I also find that it is more convenient to get on and off [compared to other footbridges]. I hope there will be adequate lighting at night and CCTV cameras for security.”
Also singing praises for the new bridge was Anita Rahma, 34, an employee of a private company who used to regularly use the old bridge located at the Senayan traffic circle to board a Transjakarta bus. She was amazed at the difference the renovation had made for pedestrians like her.
“I feel safer and more comfortable as the bridge is now wider and there are no street vendors there anymore,” she said.
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan inaugurated two newly renovated footbridges on Tuesday morning; one by the Senayan traffic circle and another in front of the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) sports complex.
The former is lined with rounded square frames in white while the latter has the same embellishments but set at different angles to create a twisting effect.
The city administration had boasted about the “instagrammable” bridges even during their construction, promising that they would not only serve pedestrians but also attract passersby.
Renovations on three footbridges along Jl. Sudirman started on Nov. 1, 2018. The third is located in front of the Jakarta Police headquarters and is nearing completion. The project is part of a broader plan to revamp Jakarta’s old footbridges.
“Walking is not just a journey, but an experience. That is why we included elements of beauty and art into these bridges,” Anies said at the GBK footbridge during the inauguration ceremony.
“I hope this will be a new chapter for us; a public facility that fulfills its function but also artistically presents a new, different and beautiful atmosphere. These bridges can serve as Jakarta’s icons and we hope there will be more like them.”
The city administration previously aimed to complete construction on all three bridges by the end of last year.
Each bridge is equipped with 24-hour CCTV cameras, trash cans, tactile paving for the visually impaired, colorful spotlights and LED lights. They will also include an elevator that can carry around 15 people and are wheelchair accessible.
Bina Marga road agency head Hari Nugroho said 10 more bridges would be renovated this year.
Eight will be funded by the city budget (APBD) while the remaining two will use fees collected from a company that was required to pay for an increase of its floor area ratio (KLB), the standard for a building’s total maximum size permitted on a given area. The three bridges on Jl. Sudirman were all funded by similar fees, totaling Rp 53 billion (US$ 3.81 million).
“We will renovate pedestrian bridges in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, and suspension bridges in Daan Mogot, West Jakarta, this year under the KLB scheme,” Hari said. “They are severely damaged; we’ll have to know them down and build entirely new bridges.”
With the opening of the footbridges, pelican crossings that were temporarily available during construction have been deactivated. However, the move was questioned by Pedestrian Coalition, a group focusing on public facilities for pedestrians.
Coalition head Alfred Sitorus said the Jakarta administration should pay more attention to pelican crossings and zebra crossings to help residents cross busy roads.
“What matters the most is accessibility, not appearance,” he told the Post.
According to the coalition’s data, more than 1,000 people use a pelican crossing in Thamrin, Central Jakarta, in a span of 30 minutes, compared to only 200 to 300 people who use a pedestrian bridge in the same duration.
“We always encourage the administration to change the public’s mindset and make it known that you don’t have to just use a pedestrian bridge to cross the road,” Alfred said. “Pregnant women, the elderly and people with special needs or disabilities would prefer to use a zebra crossing or pelican crossing.”
He further urged for city administration to renovate footbridges in other areas, not only in the city center like Jl. Sudirman.
The coalition claimed that at least 30 of about 300 pedestrian bridges in Jakarta were in poor condition. Some are even tilted or lack a proper roof, it added. (ggq)
