Community demands bike lanes

Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post, JAKARTA | Fri, 02/06/2009 10:51 AM  

The Bike to Work (B2W) community urged the city administration to finally implement its delayed plan to create bicycle lanes along main thoroughfares this year. 

“We will continue to push the administration to build the lanes,” said B2W chairman Toto Soegito. 

I want to ride my bicycle: Students of the state elementary school in Petamburan, Central Jakarta, look at rows of bicycles in their school yard Thursday. The bikes, donated by state oil and gas company Pertamina, is part of the Bike for School program organized by several NGOs. (JP/R.Berto Wedhatama)

“We expect them to be finished by the end of the year. The pilot project should have been completed last December.

“We have talked to the relevant agencies and they said bureaucracy had hampered the plan.”

The city administration has planned to build a 3-kilometer lane connecting Suropati Park and the National Monument (Monas), both in Central Jakarta, as a pilot project.

It will also build another lane connecting Blok M, Jl. Sudirman and the Sudirman Central Business District area. 

Nirwono Joga, consultant to the city parks agency on the matter, said the plan was impeded by internal politics within the administration.

“The project has been delayed because the deputy governor has not yet to approved the project, although the governor has agreed,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

“We will begin building the lane and complete it within two months, as soon as we have the approval.”

He said the lane would not require major construction, as the lane would occupy part of the existing pedestrian lane. 

Furthermore, B2W recommends the construction of lanes along riverbanks, Toto said. “Building lanes along riverbanks is feasible and would not disturb traffic.”

As part of the bike campaign, B2W, along with the Indonesian School Bike Community (SSI) and several other organizations, donated 100 bicycles to several elementary and junior high schools across the city Thursday.

The recipient schools will now select students to lend the bicycles to, prioritizing the underprivileged and those who live far from school.

The aim of the donation, carried out under the Bicycle for School program, is to encourage students to ride bicycles as a healthy and environmentally friendly transportation alternative, said the head of the program, Danang Caksono.

“We hope the donation will help underprivileged families who cannot afford transportation costs for their children to go to school,” Danang said Petamburan state elementary school in Central Jakarta.

The program will donate 10,000  bicycles across the country.