Jakarta Govt Considers Cycling Fix to Help Traffic Woes

Jakarta Globe, Lenny Tristia Tambun, Apr 09, 2015

A man cycles past vehicles stuck in Jakarta's gridlock traffic.
(Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)

Jakarta. Jakarta’s government is considering a proposal to rent bicycles at several points across the capital in a bid to ease the city’s notorious traffic congestion.

The Bike to Work community’s Wez & Go group has offered the city 100 bicycles, which would be rented in several busy spots such as Dukuh Atas, Monas and the City Hall, according to group coordinator Ramadona.

He said people who wished to use the bicycles would use a special card, which could be integrated with the TransJakarta card.

“We will improve the bicycles’ design, we even plan to install GPS and design a special card to prevent the bicycles from being stolen,” Ramadona said.

The plan has been well received by Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who has promised to study the proposal and its operational costs.

“This is a good plan, not only can it help to ease the congestion, it will also support our Smart City Program,” Basuki said.  Jakarta’s Smart City Program uses Google Maps and traffic information from crowd-scourced smartphone applications like Waze to plot the city’s traffic conditions online.

Ramadona said people who wished to rent the bike would have to register first and pay a monthly subscription fee of Rp 40,000 ($3).