Corry Elyda, Jakarta – Clayton Lane, the new CEO of the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), asked a basic question of the audience during a discussion on the future of urban mobility recently.
"Do we want a city full of cars or full of pedestrians?" he asked. While the answer seems obvious, creating a pedestrian-city friendly is far from easy – if not impossible.
Lane said that the most livable cities in the world were those with good pedestrian systems, rather than those covered in concrete highways. Authorities, he said, were guilty of misguided development.
"We need to change our way of thinking. We try to tackle congestion by expanding roads, like we expand our belts if we eat too much, instead of decreasing our portions," he said.
Lane said that the impact was worse, as road expansion could increase inaccessibility, reduce public space and add to air pollution and, in the long term, climate change.
The ideal city, he said, was one where people could walk and shop freely, with a compact, mixed-use design. He added that people should understand that roads did not belong to motor vehicle. "Cars have their place, but we should not design cities around them," he said.
Generally, he said, traffic engineers were taught how to keep cars moving. "What we have to do is actually try to move people, maintaining their mobility," he said. He added that instead of prioritizing cars over people, city authorities should realize that walking, bikes and public transit were the most efficient transportation modes.
The 2013-2017 Jakarta mid-term regional development plan (RPJMD) states the administration's plans to increase total road area from the current 48,311 square meters to 50,000 square meters, citing growing numbers of cars and motorcycles. However, new roads are blamed for creating additional problems. Casablanca overpass in South Jakarta, for example, still causes major bottlenecks at rush hours.
The Antasari elevated road has caused the value of surrounding buildings to drop significantly, while the on-going Pluit elevated road has met opposition from local people.
The Transportation Agency has recorded that about 20.7 millions trips occur in Jakarta daily, more than 56 percent of which are by private vehicle.
Data from the Jakarta Police showed that as of 2014 there were 17.4 million motor vehicles in Jakarta, 13 million of which were motorcycles and 4.3 million four-wheeled vehicles. The number represented a 12 percent increase from the previous year.
Lane said that if the government wanted to enact change, the first and easiest thing it could do was take care of pedestrians. "In Jakarta, I can't even get into my hotel on foot – I have to walk up the car driveway. When I find a sidewalk, it is damaged or occupied by two-wheelers," he said.
Lane said that the government and private entities should realize that sidewalks could increase happiness and economic vibrancy. While a number of major public transportation projects are underway, the administration has never prioritized pedestrians.
Manggarai railway station, for example, does not have adequate pedestrian crossings for commuters who want to access the nearby Transjakarta bus shelter, and few stations have access to adequate sidewalks that would allow passengers to switch to other modes of transportation.
Central Jakarta's Tanah Abang station, one of the busiest railway stations in the city, has less than 2 meters of sidewalk on the route to the biggest textiles market in Southeast Asia, which itself also lacks proper sidewalks.
Jakarta Transportation Council (DTKJ) chairwoman Ellen Tangkudung said that policies should avoid limiting people's mobility.
Ellen said that the city should prioritize public transportation, as increasing the amount of roads would not serve to reduce the number of cars. "We need to manage the supply of roads, as well as maintain demand," she said.
The city administration, she added, should look to enact policies that discourage people from using private vehicles, rather than accommodating their ever-increasing numbers. – JP/Corry Elyda
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/03/12/car-centric-policies-result-unliveable-cities.html