Any chance of the Jakarta Public Transport Authority having an Art Department?
Or a Transport Museum?
Or a Public Service?
As in London?
Footnote the following day.
President SBY, conscious that the eyes of the world will be on him as he hosts the upcoming Climate Change Conference in Bali next month, has asked local regions to provide special lanes so folk can cycle to work. He was seeing off a group of cyclists aiming to pedal their way to Bali over the next couple of weeks so they can be applauded in the opening ceremony on December 3rd.
Regarding bike lanes, SBY said, "By providing access to cyclists, we are not only saving the planet by reducing pollution, but also giving people fresher air to breathe." This may sound like a bit of tautology, but it makes a lot more sense than what Fuzzy Bodoh had to say on the same matter.
Our recently elected governor was presumably referring to the membership of the Bike2Work group, brave souls one and all, when he said, "There are some 3,000 cyclists in the city right now. we have to wait until there are one million because providing special bus lanes will take part of the road."
There are certainly more than 3,000 cyclists, as well as assorted bread sellers etc., pedalling their way around. If there were bike lanes, more people would be encouraged to cycle and less people would drive. If there were special lock ups for cyclists at busway terminals and, say, shopping malls served by the busway, then more folk would use the busway, meaning that there would be fewer cars and less need to widen roads.
There's another gubernatorial election in four years or so.
Can Jakartans afford to wait that long?
