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Cyclists: New prima donnas?
Currently, the city’s bicycle lanes stretch 63 kilometers, but the administration is aiming to extend them to up to 500 km.
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he ongoing pandemic has provided an opportunity for local governments and society at large to promote and implement healthier lifestyles, which in Jakarta has manifested in the rapidly growing cycling community. Every morning under large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) and their transitional phase, packs of cyclists have dotted Jakarta’s streets, sometimes accompanied by security officers.
Gubernatorial Regulation No. 51/2020 on PSBB guidelines, issued in June, stipulated the establishment of a special lane for bicycles in certain parts of the capital and required buildings to provide parking facilities for bikes. Never before have cyclists enjoyed such privileges.
Currently, the city’s bicycle lanes stretch 63 kilometers, but the administration is aiming to extend them to up to 500 km. If this materializes, it will dramatically change the face of Jakarta. Although this initiative alone will not transform Jakarta into a city of bikes like Amsterdam, it will help solve traffic congestion and air pollution, which are infamous in the metropolis.
To support PSBB, the regulation strengthens the odd-even license plate policy, which affects not only cars but also motorcycles. The number of motorized vehicles in Jakarta reached 11.8 million in 2019 and has been growing at about 0.9 percent annually. No wonder air quality in the capital ranks among the worst in the world.
Bicycle sales are booming in Jakarta and throughout the world during the pandemic as people move away from public transportation to avoid virus transmission. But the need to stay healthy in order to improve one’s immune system to prevent infection has given further impetus to the bike craze.
Now that a special bicycle lane is in place, traffic signs for bikers seem to be the next pressing issue. A number of cycling enthusiasts say traffic signs are needed to prevent clashes between cyclists and other road users in the city’s crowded streets.
The traffic signs will protect bikers from motorists, who the National Police Traffic Directorate has found to be prone to violating traffic rules. According to the pecking order, bikers are the weakest group of road users after pedestrians and are susceptible to intimidation and exercises of power by motorists.
More good news for cyclists has come from the city administration. It is now preparing additional special bicycle lanes that will be connected to public transportation networks, such as train and MRT stations. The City Transportation Agency has partnered with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) Indonesia to design bicycle zones in Jakarta.
Nobody knows when the pandemic will end, but it has given the governments of Jakarta and elsewhere ample time to reform their traffic policies in ways that will support sustainability and resilience. Protecting the rights of bikers and pedestrians though the provision of bicycle lanes and the expansion of sidewalks is just a start in the effort to lower carbon emissions.
The next game changer will be phasing out fuel consumption in the public transportation. TransJakarta is now operating buses that run on gas, and it is about time that electric buses join the fleet
