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Cyclists hail Jakarta’s bike-friendly policy
Cycling communities have lauded the Jakarta administration's plan to install protected bicycle lanes and expand existing lanes to provide safety and security for the city's growing population of bike commuters.
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he Jakarta administration is stepping up its efforts to make the nation’s capital more bike-friendly, to accommodate a surge in residents taking up cycling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials are overseeing construction in Central Jakarta of the city’s first protected bicycle lane, an exclusive lane on a roadway for cyclists. They also plan to nearly double the length of existing bike lanes this year.
The move has garnered wide and high praise among Jakarta’s cycling communities that have long complained about insufficient cycling infrastructure and the lack of safe bicycle lanes.
Poetoet Soedarjanto of Bike to Work Indonesia (B2W Indonesia) said the project would be a good starting point for providing a safer and more comfortable environment for Jakarta’s cyclists.
"Our community warmly welcomes the new [protected] lanes. Even though it will span only a few kilometers, it proves that the city administration is starting to pay attention to our safety," he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Chriswanto of the Kelapa Gading Brompton Owners (BOGAS) Club also expressed optimism, saying that by making Jakarta more bike-friendly, the administration had demonstrated its commitment to easing the severe gridlocks and poor air quality in the capital.
Read also: Yearender 2020: Pandemic cycling trend brings hope for a greener Jakarta
According to Jakarta Transportation Agency head Syafrin Liputo, the protected bike lanes are to span 11 kilometers along the bustling thoroughfares of Jl. Sudirman and Jl. M.H. Thamrin from South to Central Jakarta. He said the administration expected the new lanes to be completed and ready for use by the end of March.
The bike lanes will also be equipped with bike racks, rest areas and directional (or wayfinding) signage, and integrated with bus shelters and MRT stations. Concrete planters will be installed along the lanes to form a protective barrier as well as to designate enough space for safe cycling at a total cost of Rp 30 billion (US$ 2.1 million).
Syafrin said a third party was providing the funds, but did not disclose further details. He added that the administration planned to construct additional bike lanes spanning 101.2 km across the capital this year, including 34.1 km of protected lanes.
The city had allocated around Rp 61 million for the project as part of its ambitious plan to lay down 578.8 km of bicycle lanes by 2030.
"We hope that the longer and safer bike lanes may provide more comfort and security for cyclists and encourage more people to ride their bikes," said Syafrin.
Jakarta and many other big cities around the world have seen a significant increase in bicycle commuting since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, with the resulting phenomenon widely dubbed “the bike boom”.
Some people have turned to cycling as a coping strategy for mental health issues stemming from mobility restrictions and stay-at-home policies.
Syafrin said the number of cyclists in Jakarta increased tenfold from 2019 to 2020. Although the figure dropped 26 percent earlier this year around the peak of the rainy season, the number had recently risen again.
He said the capital was seeing a daily average of 3,826 bike commuters as of February.
Read also: Jakartans turn to bicycles to commute in ‘new normal’
The increasing popularity of bike commuting prompted the administration to set up several kilometers of makeshift bike lanes beginning last June, marked only with traffic cones. These makeshift lanes include those on Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin, which are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day.
Officials initially planned to expand the city’s bicycle lane network from the 63 km constructed in 2019 to a 200 km in total, but the project was scrapped when the administration reallocated the funds to COVID-19 mitigation and control.
In spite of improvements in Jakarta’s cycling infrastructure, safety remains a major concern among its cyclists.
Chriswanto said that many manhole covers in the capital’s roads were not seated properly and posed a risk for cyclists and pedestrians alike. Cyclists were also often targeted by begal (street robbers), who preyed on their victims at empty intersections and roads at night.
Motorists also posed a threat to bicycle riders. Poetoet of B2W said bike lane violations were rampant across the city, with many motorists driving or parking in the dedicated lanes for cycling.
These factors had contributed to an increased number of bicycle accidents over the past year, with 38 cyclists losing their lives to traffic accidents and another 37 from related health complications in 2020, according to B2W.
Authorities have taken measures to address the problems, with officials from the Jakarta Transportation Agency cycling in the lanes to monitor traffic violations and raise public awareness about bike lanes.
The Jakarta Police also formed a task force last October to crack down on street robberies that targeted cyclists.
Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) secretary-general Harya S. Dillon said that the success of Jakarta’s bicycle-friendly project would depend largely on strong leadership and "consistency in enforcing the rules".
"We still have a long journey ahead, but I believe the city's bike [lane] expansion project is a good start," he said on Monday as quoted by kompas.com.
