The Biro is a car and should be on the road, magistrates say

DutchNews, January 28, 2019

Photo: DutchNews.nl

A magistrate’s court in Amsterdam has ruled that the Biro, a small electric car, will no longer be classed as a vehicle for the disabled but as a moped, thereby banning it from the city’s cycle paths, the Parool reports. 

The decision was announced in a tweet by the infrastructure ministry, which, the paper says, had long been annoyed at the disabled label which effectively gave Biro drivers the right to drive and park anywhere they liked. 

The vehicle is not dissimilar to the Canta, which is meant for people with mobility problems. It is mainly popular with the well-heeled in the south of the city but its use has given rise to complaints about them blocking access to pavements. 

Pascal van den Noort of cycle advise bureau VeloMondial welcomed the news. ‘The decision means the Biro is really a car and as such it can no longer park on the pavement or drive on cycle paths. It is allowed on the roads and will have to pay for parking,’ he told the paper. 

Traffic alderman Sharon Dijksma said she hoped the decision would lead to better policing but that much remained unclear. ‘This is a magistrate’s court decision and it is not in writing so we don’t know what it is based on. We will talk to the public prosecutions department and the junior infrastructure minister,’ the paper quotes her as saying. 

The Biro ban is the latest move in an effort to establish a clear pecking order on the country’s cycle paths. In December last year Amsterdam announced that slower mopeds, known as a snorfiets in Dutch, will be banned from some of the city’s cycle lanes from next April and Utrecht is bringing in a similar ban at the end of the next year.

Construction starts on NL’s first energy-neutral highway

DutchNews, February 16, 2017

Photo: Regering.nl 

On Thursday, the Netherlands started construction of the first energy-neutral highway, reports the Financiele Dagblad. 

The A6 to Almere expansion project has already won a European Procura+ sustainability award, in 2016.

Last June, infrastructure minister Schultz van Haegen announced that the Dutch road and water network will be fully energy neutral by 2030, with solar panels along roads and waterways, and roadside grass cuttings converted to green gas. 

The current motorway widening project on the A6 will have 30km of solar panels to supply the energy for road and traffic lights, while infrastructure body Rijkswaterstaat is also trying to develop a type of asphalt that will reduce fuel consumption by producing less drag. 

But, reports the Financiele Dagblad, the A6 project has not been without problems as, due to “mistakes” made in the local municipality, it does not have access to all of the land it required and so “must improvise”.

Road paved with solar panels powers French town

Yahoo – AFP, Chloé Coupeau,  December 22, 2016

Segolene Royal and other officials walk on a solar panel road at its
inauguration in Tourouvre, on December 22, 2016 (AFP Photo/Carly Triballeau)

Tourouvre (France) (AFP) - France on Thursday inaugurated the world's first "solar highway", a road paved with solar panels providing enough energy to power the street lights of the small Normandy town of Tourouvre.

The one-kilometre (half-mile) "Wattway" covered with 2,800 square metres (30,000 square feet) of resin-coated solar panels was hooked up to the local power grid as Environment Minister Segolene Royal looked on.

"This new use of solar energy takes advantage of large swathes of road infrastructure already in use... to produce electricity without taking up new real estate," Royal said in a statement.

The minister announced a four-year "plan for the national deployment of solar highways" with initial projects in western Brittany and southern Marseille.

An average of 2,000 cars use the road in Tourouvre each day, testing the resistance of the panels for the project carried out by French civil engineering firm Colas, a subsidiary of construction giant Bouygues.

The idea, which is also under exploration in Germany, the Netherlands and the United States, is that roadways are occupied by cars only around 20 percent of the time, providing vast expanses of surface to soak up the sun's rays.

Colas says that in theory France could become energy independent by paving only a quarter of its million kilometres of roads with solar panels.

The world's first solar road (AFP Photo/Simon MALFATTO, Sophie RAMIS)

Sceptics are waiting to see whether the panels can withstand the ravages of time and weather, as well as the beating they will take from big trucks.

Solar panels installed on a 70-metre stretch of a cycling lane north of Amsterdam experienced some damage last winter but the problem has been resolved, the project's company TNO said.

The Wattway project, which has received a state subsidy of five million euros (dollars), began with four pilot sites around France, in parking lots or in front of public buildings, on much smaller surfaces of between 50 and 100 square metres each.

One drawback of the system is that solar panels are more effective when angled towards the sun, typically on slanted rooftops, than when they are laid flat.

And the cost question is far from being resolved. Each kilowatt-peak -- the unit of measure for solar energy -- generated by Wattway currently costs 17 euros, compared with 1.30 euros for a major rooftop installation.

But Colas hopes to make the cost competitive by 2020, noting that the cost of producing solar energy decreased by 60 percent between 2009 and 2015 according to a French renewable energy association, SER.

Related Article:

World's first solar cycle lane opening in the Netherlands

SolaRoad in Krommenie, the Netherlands, will be the world’s first cycle path

with embedded solar panels. Photograph: SolaRoad

Video: 8,400 tonne railway bridge moved into place overnight

DutchNews, May 7, 2016

Photo: Rijkswaterstaat

A massive operation to place 255 metre long railway bridge over the A1 motorway near Muiderberg has been completed three hours ahead of schedule, the transport ministry said on Saturday. 

The 8,400 tonne bridge had to be moved 400 metres from the location where it had been assembled to the correct site over the highway. The A1 was closed at 20.00 hours on Friday night to enable the work to take place and reopened at 09.00 on Saturday morning. 

The bridge was put in place by 03.00 but then had to be adjusted millimeter by millimeter to make sure everything joined up. 

Transport ministry spokesman Henk Voerman said the entire operation had proceeded smoothly. ‘It was really imposing to watch, particularly from close up when those enormous wheels began to move,’ he told RTL news. 

Work will now continue on the bridge and it will be opened in August when the old railway bridge will be demolished.

Time lapse of the entire operation

Dutch company launches plan for recycled plastic roads

DutchNews, September 17, 2015

An artist's impression of how the plastic roads would work

Dutch company KWS Infra is developing a new sort of road made from recycled plastic. This, the company says, will not only cut down on plastic waste but reduce CO2 output from road building and usage, and make roads more sustainable and safer. Esther O’Toole reports. 

An estimated eight billion tons of plastic is floating around in the oceans and 55% of our plastic waste is still incinerated. Innovative Dutch companies have been busy looking at feasible ways of fishing the plastic out of the sea and shipping it to shore. Now KWS Infra, part of the VolkerWessels construction group and the biggest road builder in the Netherlands, has come up with a plan to turn that kind of plastic waste into roads. 

The roads themselves would be made from prefab sections prepared offsite from 100% recycled plastic and brought en masse to the building site, with road markings and guard rails already in place. Being light weight and easy to transport they could take months off construction times. 

The fabric is thought to be more durable than asphalt and needs little or no maintenance, being weather proof and impervious to weeds. The other major advantage is that they are hollow allowing space for piping, electric cables and – another hot topic for VolkerWessels – internet connections. 

Internet 

VolkerWessels is now investing in multiple projects for urban renewal and connected city innovation, including placing internet receivers along roads, be they antennas and masts or embedded in street lights and wind turbines. Plastic roads fit into this picture perfectly. If the space inside the decking could also be used to house net connectors, losing reception in a tunnel would become a thing of the past. 

Driverless cars, cheap and affordable ones too, will be on the open market as early as next year. What benefits will be reaped from these innovative technologies when they begin to converge? With uninterrupted mobile internet connections along all main highways, a long commute could be set to become the most productive part of the day. 

No wonder then that VolkerWessels is not having trouble garnering interest for their projects. Rotterdam city council was the first to show interest in piloting the PlasticRoad, in early July. 

Interest 

Since then the company has had interest from cities all over the world and are looking to finalise partnerships with plastics and recycling experts soon, spokesman Anne Koudstaal told DutchNews.nl. The aim is to have a team in place by December and to run a feasibility pilot within three years.

‘We are feeling very positive about it,’ he said. ‘All the good reactions [to July’s announcement] are a huge boost for us and the idea. It makes it all seem so much more realisable.’ 

If all goes to plan, the roads themselves may in turn be recyclable. This would bring PlasticRoad completely in line with the ‘cradle to cradle’ notions of the circular economy being implemented by other innovative ideas such as The Ocean Clean Up Project and the Plastic Madonna art project. 

The Netherlands, despite being one of the smallest countries in the developed world by land mass, has one of the highest carbon footprints per capita; especially in relation to fossil fuel use and cement production. Cutting emissions related to road usage and building would seriously reduce that footprint. Especially when one considers that the road network in the country covers approximately 135,470 km and most of it is tarmacked.

Related Article:

Delft student raises $2m through crowdfunding for plastic soup plan

An impression of how the system might look. Photo: Ocean Cleanup

Pakistan and China cooperation to forge trade gateway: senator

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-22

A tunnel under construction on the Karakoram Highway connecting Xinjiang
in China with Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region, April 18. (Photo/Xinhua)

Two-way trade between China and Pakistan is expected to swell by 300% to 400% in the next five years along with the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that connects Kashgar city in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to the southwestern Pakistan port of Gwadar via highways, railways and pipelines, Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao reports, citing a Pakistani senator.

"The corridor will greatly benefit both Pakistan and China, as it involves deployments in comprehensive cooperation in the fields of manufacturing, energy, and transportation, etc," Saleem Mandviwalla told the paper when asked which country will benefit more from the project.

The senator also expected Gwadar Port, located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baloschistan, to become the key gateway for Middle East transshipments to China in the coming few years.

President Xi Jinping of China is paying his first state visit for the year to Pakistan to oversee the signing of agreements pertaining to the implementation of the CPEC project, which may serve as a model for China in promoting its Belt and Road Initiative, the paper reported.

With the construction of the economic corridor, Mandviwalla said Pakistan will enjoy significant infrastructure improvement and transfer of manufacturing industries from China, thereby changing his country's economic structure. China's demand for clean energy to support the next decade of economic growth will be fully met by the new oil pipelines constructed under the project, he added.

China-Pakistan trade amounted to US$16.006 billion in 2014, with China enjoying a large trade surplus by recording US$13.248 billion in shipments to Pakistan. But Mandviwalla believes that once Gwadar becomes the gateway for shipments to China from Iran, Afghanistan and other neighboring countries, the trade imbalance will improve drastically.

Mandviwalla told the paper he believes Pakistan will eventually become the cornerstone of the trade gateway for Central Asia and the Middle East after the Gwadar-Xinjiang railways and highways are operational.

Dozens killed as bus collides with oil tanker in Pakistan

At least 57 people, including women and children, have been killed after a bus crashed into an oil tanker in southern Pakistan. The accident led to a fiery blaze, making rescue attempts difficult.

Deutsche Welle, 11 Jan 2015

The overloaded bus was on its way to Shikarpur from Pakistan's commercial capital, Karachi. Senior police officer Rao Muhammad Anwaar said the bus "hit the oil tanker which, according to initial reports, was coming from the wrong direction."

The accident led to a fierce blaze, which was put out by the fire brigade, but not until both the bus and the tanker were completely consumed, Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune reported. Rescue workers had to cut through heavy machinery to reach the victims, it said.

A few passengers escaped by jumping out of the windows.

As many as 57 people are reported to have died in fiery crash between bus and oil tanker near Karachi, #Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/txIwP4NzoP
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) January 11, 2015

"We have received more than 57 dead bodies but the death toll may rise as most of them are completely burnt and stuck to each other," Semi Jamali, a doctor at Karachi's Jinnah hospital, told news agency Agence France Presse.

Bodies that were badly burnt would have to be identified using DNA tests, Jamali added.

The accident was the second collision within a span of three months. In November, 57 people including women and children were killed when a bus crashed into a goods truck loaded with coal.

Pakistan has a record number of fatal travel accidents, owing mainly to bad roads and reckless driving.

mg/cmk (AFP, AP)

Indonesia Doubling Transport Budget With $10 Billion Fuel Saving

Jakarta Globe, Sharon Chen,  Jan 05, 2015

Motorists ride their motorbikes between cars during rush hour on a main road
in Jakarta on Nov. 28, 2014. (EPA Photo/Mast Irham)

Jakarta. Indonesia will save about $10 billion from the biggest overhaul of its decades-old fuel subsidy system, allowing the government to double spending on transportation, agriculture and public works, the energy minister said.

The finance ministry estimates that at least 120 trillion rupiah ($10 billion) in savings will be made this year, and the number will increase in coming years, said Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Angie Lau on Monday.

“What happened is shifting the subsidy from consumption into more productive spending,” the minister said.

“Because of the policy this year 2015, the public works, the transportation sector and the agriculture will double the capital expenditure budget.”

President Joko Widodo scrapped the subsidy for gasoline on Jan. 1 and capped the amount of aid for diesel, joining India and Malaysia in taking advantage of plunging oil prices to wean their nations off government subsidized fuel. Indonesia had been subsidizing fuel since the first oil price shock in the 1970s and kept prices at less than $0.20 per liter until 2005, according to a World Bank report published in March.

The government plans to double spending on transportation from last year, according to Said. The budget for public works such as roads, housing and irrigation will be more than twice the original allocation and more money will be set aside for farmers and the agriculture sector, he said. Building infrastructure for the oil and gas industry and electricity will be part of the government’s focus this year, he said.

Dismantling the subsidy program is a political hot potato — protests accompanied past price increases and riots spurred by soaring living costs helped oust dictator Suharto in 1998.

“The challenge would be of course the response from the public, but I have confidence that if we communicate well, then they will understand” and in the longer term it is going to be a much better budget structure, the minister said.

Bloomberg

World's first solar cycle lane opening in the Netherlands

Solar panels embedded in the cycle path near Amsterdam could generate enough electricity to power three houses, with potential to extend scheme to roads

theguardian.com, Philip Oltermann in Berlin, Wednesday 5 November 2014

SolaRoad in Krommenie, the Netherlands, will be the world’s first cycle path
with embedded solar panels. Photograph: SolaRoad

The bike path that connects the Amsterdam suburbs of Krommenie and Wormerveer is popular with both school children and commuters: around 2,000 cyclists ride its two lanes on an average day.

But next week Krommenie’s cycle path promises to become even more useful: on 12 November a 70-metre stretch will become the world’s first public road with embedded solar panels.

Costing around €3m (£2.4m) and funded mostly by the local authority, the road is made up of rows of crystalline silicon solar cells, encased within concrete and covered with a translucent layer of tempered glass.

A non-adhesive finish and a slight tilt are meant to help the rain wash off dirt and thus keep the surface clean, guaranteeing maximum exposure to sunlight.

Since the path cannot be adjusted to the position of the sun, the panels produce roughly 30% less energy than those fixed on to roofs. Nonetheless, when the path is extended to 100 metres in 2016, its creators hope that it will produce enough energy to power three households.

The Netherlands’ TNO research institute, which developed the concept behind the solar bicycle path, think the potential of their idea doesn’t stop there. Sten de Wit of the institute told the Guardian that up to 20% of the Netherlands’ 140,000km of road could potentially be adapted, helping to power anything from traffic lights to electric cars. Tests have seen the solar panel units successfully carry the weight of heavy vehicles such as tractors.

While Krommenie will become the first community in the world with a publicly accessible stretch of solar road, the idea of using existing road infrastructure to harvest solar energy is gaining momentum across the globe.

Two US engineers, Idaho couple Julie and Scott Brusaw, have been developing solar panelling units for road use since 2006. In 2009, their company Solar Roadways received a contract from America’s Federal Highway Administration to build a prototype.

In March this year, the Brusaws replaced their own parking lot with solar-panelled units, and thanks to a popular viral video, they have raised $2.2m (£1.4m) to put their design into production.

If all the roads in the US were converted to solar roadways, the Solar Roadways website claims, the country would generate three times as much energy as it currently uses and cut greenhouse gases by 75%.

Jakarta Announces Plan for Integrated Tunnels to Manage Traffic and Floods

Jakarta Globe, Suara Pembaruan, Apr 27, 2014

An illustration of the plan for the Jakarta Integrated Tunnels.
(Berita Satu Illustration/Istimewa)

Jakarta. The city administration said it would begin building two dual-purpose tunnels by the end of the year in an effort to address increasingly dire conditions on the capital’s gridlocked, flood-prone streets.

Private building contractor Antaredja Mulia Jaya has been awarded a contract for the Jakarta Integrated Tunnel (JIT) project.

“The JIT development will be in collaberation with French investor Bouygues,” Antaredja head Agus Sidharta said on Friday at City Hall. “Bouygues is an international company that has taken part in the development of tunnels in Europe, Africa, United States, and China.

The tunnels — connecting Ulujami to Tanah Abang and Pasar Minggu to Manggarai — have been designed to carry flood water and traffic on separate levels, at a projected cost of Rp 34 trillion ($2.92 billion), Indonesian news portal Kompas.com reported.

Agus said his company would work with Jakarta’s toll road developer to build and maintain the road portion of the project.

Each tunnel is set to measured 11 meters in diameter and 12 kilometers in length, from 5 to 15 meters below ground.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said that the city government had given the project its full approval and saw it as a sensible plan for the city.

First glowing road opened near Oss

DutchNews.nl, Thursday 10 April 2014

The glowing lines on the N329

A 500 metre stretch of highway near Oss has become the first in the country to have its markings made from light-absorbing paint which glows in the dark.

The paint was developed by construction group Heijmans and absorbs light during the day. It then glows for up to eight hours, showing motorists where the edge of the road is and other key markings

The 'glowing lines' project was devised by artist Daan Roosegaarde, who says the paint is a good option now some road lighting is being switched off at night.

'The focus is always on making cars cleverer and more energy neutral, but roads help determine the landscape,' he told the broadcaster.

Heijmans is keen to use the paint on other roads but has not yet negotiated any more contracts, Nos said.

More on this

Three die in Borneo as suspension bridge collapses

BBC News, 26 November 2011 

The bridge was reported to be the
longest in Borneo

At least three people have died and 17 others have been injured after a bridge collapsed on Indonesia's Borneo island.

A bus, cars and motorcycles plunged from the bridge, which connects Tenggarong and Tenggarong Seberang town, into the Mahakam River below.

The bridge, 720m long and completed in 2002, is reported to be the longest suspension bridge in Borneo.

Witnesses described survivors screaming as they swam to the shore after the bridge gave way.

Many of the injured were reported to be suffering from head wounds.

Rescuers found the bodies of three men who had apparently drowned in the river, while 17 others were taken to Parekesit hospital in Tenggarong, the capital of Kutai Kertanegara district.

The bridge was built to resemble San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear.

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Collapsed bridge out of service: BNPB

S. Jakarta’s cycle lane plan affects several streets

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/05/2010 10:36 AM

Cyclists living in South Jakarta will be the first to enjoy bicycle lanes, which will be built on several routes across the municipality.

The South Jakarta administration’s website says the first cycle lane will go from Jl. Lebak Bulus to Jl. Pondok Metro. It then passes Jl. Kyai Maja to Jl. Sisingamaraja.

South Jakarta Mayor Syahrul Effendi said that he planned to extend the bicycle lane to Jl. Jend. Sudirman and Jl. Setiabudi in Karet Kuningan subdistrict.

According to the City Traffic Police Chief Sr. Comr. Condro Kirono, the lane will be 0.5 to 1 meter wide.

“From Jl. Lebak Bulus to Jl. Sisingamaraja route, there will be a specially marked section on sidewalks.

For area with narrow sidewalks like the Kuningan area, the lane will occupy a space in the street,” Condro told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Rivo Pamudji, a spokesman for Bike to Work (B2W) welcomed this.

“We appreciate the initiative of South Jakarta municipality,” said Rivo.

Rivo added that about 500 members of B2W who lived in the South Jakarta and Tangerang areas used the routes to travel to their offices.

“We do not need an exclusive lane like the busway lane [on sidewalks]. In the streets, where cars and motorcycles do not want to give way to bikers, we truly need a specially marked lane for bicycles,” he said.

Nirwono Joga, a landscape architect, questioned using sidewalks.

“I agree the city need bicycle lanes. But, I think these routes are too crowded. The sidewalks are too narrow to be used by both pedestrians and bikers,” he said.

Nirwono said that in Kuningan sidewalks are only a half meter wide and streets four meters wide.

“The sidewalks are too narrow and the streets are also narrow. There is a busway lane there and I think to add a bicycle lane will cause more congestion,” Nirwono said.

“It will be more effective to make bicycle lanes from residential areas to busway shelters and train stations. The bikers can also use environmental friendly public transportation systems,” he said.

Nirwono added that building a bicycle lane on the sidewalks along Jl. Lebak Bulus to Jl. Sisingamaraja was not a good idea.

“Only a sidewalk 6 meters wide could be used by pedestrian and bikers. The sidewalks are not only too narrow, but dangerous for bikers. There are so many holes,” he said.

“Also, so many public facilities such as electricity poles, phone cables and water pipes are built near the sidewalks. At least 12 city agencies control these facilities,” he said.

The City Transportation Agency traffic management chief Muhammad Akbar said the South Jakarta municipality’s plan should be appreciated since they had moved ahead of the provincial administration.

“We are still in the process of making a bicycle lane master plan. The municipality has planned to finish the lane this year,” Akbar said.

“I have not learned the details. However, I hope that it would be in line with the master plan,” he said.

According to Akbar, the city administration’s master plan says that there should be three kinds of bicycle lanes in the city. First, the bicycle lanes should be built on sidewalks which are more than 6 meter wide. Second, the lanes should be allocated some space in the streets which are not too crowded.

Third, the lanes should be built in green strips alongside railways, rivers and canals. (mrs)

Govt to allocate Rp16.68 trillion for road repair

Antara News, Wednesday, December 30, 2009 00:15 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government is preparing a budget amounting to Rp16.65 trillion for road and bridge repairs in 2010, down from the previous year`s allocation of Rp18.64 trillion, a deputy minister said.

Deputy Minister for Public Works Hermanto Dardak said here on Tuesday that of the 2010 year allocation, Rp1.34 trillion would be used to finance repair of 1,477 km highways in northern coasts of Java.

"The highways in the coast of Java get the biggest allocation of the funds because they constitute the backbone of the nation`s transportation and economic distribution," Hermanto said.

He said that the government would also allocate Rp373.26 billion for the repair of 1,186 km of Java`s central axis roads and Rp224.33 billion for the 1,132 km southern Java lanes.

In Sumatra, according to Hermanto, the allocation that would be provided for the 2,805 km eastern trans-Sumatra highways amounted to Rp848.79 billion, the 2,540 km central trans-Sumatra Rp543.06 billion and the Sumatran 2,493 km western lanes Rp418.68 billion.

"We have set a target that in 2014 the whole trans-Sumatran highways would have a width of seven meters,," he said.

The road repair in Kalimantan in 2010 will included the 3,408 km southern highways with allocation of Rp996.89 billion, the 1,900 km central highways with Rp232.63 billion and the 1,557 km northern ones with a fund allocation of Rp192.66 billion.

In Sulawesi, the allocation for the 2.099 km western highways is set at Rp943.98 billion, the 2,346 km central highways Rp 495.03 billion and the 2,054 km western roads amounted to Rp228.93 billion.

In Papua, the government will provide Rp980 billion for 2,060 km strategic roads and Rp460.21 billion for other 1,038 km other roads.

Hermanto said that the government also targeted that in 2014 about 95 percent of national roads in the country would have been in good condition.

Jakarta police warn of busted roads

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 12/05/2009 10:36 AM

Jakarta Police's Traffic Management Center is warning road users of at least 19 areas with damaged roads across the city, including at an intersection in Jl. MT Haryono in South Jakarta, at the Senayan shooting range intersection in Central Jakarta, and on Jl. Simpruk Raya in West Jakarta.

The rainy season has traditionally been a time when motorists, and in particular motorcyclists, are warned to drive more carefully to avoid rainwater-deluged potholes.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo had said his administration would not rush to repair them, adding it could wait until the advent of the dry season.

The list of damaged areas:

• South Jakarta: Jl. MT Haryono, Pancoran, Jl. TB Simatupang, Jl. Minangkabau in Manggarai, in front of Balai Kartini, Jl. Rasuna Said, Jl. Gatot Subroto.
  
  
• East Jakarta: Jl. Sutoyo heading to Jagorawi, near Wika, in front of BKAN office heading to UKI, near the Jakarta Military District Command (Kodam Jaya) office.
  
  
• Central Jakarta: at the Senayan shooting range intersection, at Matraman intersection.
  
  
• North Jakarta: Teluk Gong – from Bandungan to BHI, Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan, Jl. Raya Cacing
  
  
• West Jakarta: Jl. Ringroad Raya Cengkareng and
  
  
• Jakarta Barat: di Jalan Ringroad Raya Cengkareng, Jl. Simpruk Raya

Hard day

The Jakarta Post | Thu, 03/19/2009 6:23 PM | Jakarta

Workmen repair Jl. Mayjen Suprapto in North Jakarta on Thursday. Stretches of the road are prone to flooding. JP/J.Adiguna

Six new roads open for public

Sat, 12/06/2008 11:34 AM, The Jakarta Post  

JAKARTA: Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto opened six new roads in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi on Friday. 

The alternative roads include overpasses in Cikarang, Bekasi, and in Ciputat and Sudirman in Jakarta; two underpasses in Tangerang's Ciledug and Bogor's Semplak; and a road in the Cakung-Cilincing industrial zone in Jakarta. 

Djoko said the new roads served as the main routes for the capital and its satellite towns. 

"The Cikarang overpass and the Cakung-Cilincing road will support transportation for industries to reach Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta," he said at the ceremony in Bekasi.

Samarinda airport to reopen Tuesday

Nurni Sulaiman, The Jakarta Post, Samarinda | Mon, 12/01/2008 7:55 PM  

Temindung airport in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, is set to resume operation on Monday, after five days of closure due to massive flooding in the area. 

Trigana Air and Avia Star will resume flights to neighboring towns, including the oil towns of Tarakan, Berau and Kutai Barat. 

"Today, all employees have been voluntarily cleaning up all the airport facilities, and by tomorrow we hope to be able to resume operations," Temindung airport chief Bambang Darmawanto told The Jakarta Post on Monday. 

Despite the plan to reopen the airport on Tuesday, access roads to the airport remained flooded on Monday. 

"Today, only the access roads are flooded. The runway and the terminals are dry and ready to serve the public," Bambang said. 

The floods in Samarinda have put the city almost at a standstill. Water has subsided in a number of public places such as Lembuswana mall and some main streets, but the city's only state university, Mulawarman University, is still flooded and remains closed to students. 

"There are no classes yet, because the water still comes up to your waist," student Ayu Defia said.

Bicycles could disappear from Asia, experts warn

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Bangkok | Thu, 11/13/2008 10:29 AM  

It is likely bicycles will have disappeared from China's and India's streets within the next decade, unless governments of the world's two most populous countries make a U-turn in their transportation policies. 

A joint study by the Netherlands-based Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-CE) and Indian-based Transport Research and Injury Prevention Program (TRIPP) was conducted in China, India, Taiwan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to measure each government's attitude to cyclists. 

"Today, China and India still have a lot of bikes but we are not sure if they will exist in the next five or 10 years as the governments' policies are not bicycle-friendly," I-CE resident representative in India, Anvita Arora, said during the Better Air Quality workshop here Tuesday. 

In India alone, the study -- covering 19 of the country's medium and large cities -- showed a sharp decline in bicycle journeys over the past two decades. 

"In New Delhi, only 5 percent of trips were made by bicycle in 2000, compared with about 20 percent in previous years," the study said. 

"The major shortcoming of almost all development proposals in Indian cities is that the bicycle tracks have not been planned as an integral part of the road networks." 

In Taiwan, home to 23 million residents and known as the kingdom of bicycle manufacturing, the government has long neglected cyclists. 

"There has been a growing dependence on private motorized transportation, as evidenced by the presence of 5.7 million cars and 12 million motorcycles," the study shows. 

Taiwan is currently trying to encourage cyclists to take to the road again. 

"In Singapore, you don't find bicycles at all and there is less policy support for them," Arora said, claiming the declining trend was affecting all Asian countries. 

"Everybody is talking about the impacts of climate change and air pollution but the number of bicycles is going down in Asia. It is very worrying." 

But Indonesia has made some progress in promoting the use of bicycles in the past three years, according to Transportation Study Institute (Instran) director Darmaningtyas. 

"There is a rising number of cyclists in Indonesia, mainly since the 2005 fuel price hike. Regional administrations, including Jakarta, Surakarta (Central Java) and Ngawi (East Java), are actively promoting the use of bicycles," he said. 

I-CE executive officer Tom Godefrooij said the main challenge for Asia was reversing the decline in the number of bicycles. 

"There are lots of programs to make it happen, including by stopping plans to provide roads (only) for cars. The road must be a place for all users, including cyclists," he said. 

He said the Dutch and Danish governments had maintained the proportion of bicycle trips at 20 to 25 percent of the total.

Airport gets ready for flood chaos

The Jakarta Post, Tue, 11/11/2008 10:49 AM   

TANGERANG: The Soekarno-Hatta International Airport gets ready for possible flooding at the Sedyatmo toll road leading to the airport ahead of the rainy season. 

"In coordination with airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II and Airport administration, we have prepared four tow cars to drag any cars that break down from the flood point, a mobile information vehicle, two buses and some rubber dinghies for evacuation," airport police chief Comr. Sutimin said Monday. 

The traffic signs for alternative roads heading to the airport have also been prepared.
Sutimin said motorists from Tanjung Priok can take the route from Penjaringan interchange heading to Kalideres intersections before passing Jl. Raya Rawa Bokor and Jl. Husen Sastranegara to reach the airport gate.