Someone added Ultraman to the photo from yesterday
Someone added Ultraman to the photo from yesterday
Tag: jakarta
5 Million People Leave Jakarta as Idul Fitri Exodus Peaks
Jakarta Globe:
The Jakarta Transportation Agency predicted earlier that a total of 9.7 million citizens would make the journey from Jakarta to their respective hometowns for Idul Fitri, which is expected to fall this Thursday.
From that amount, 7.2 million people are expected to use private transportation, while the other 2.5 million will go by public transportation.
Nationwide, the figure is estimated to reach a total of 30 million.
Over half have left the city at this point.
So how many residents does Jakarta have again? If we have 12 million, that leaves less than a third of the city for a week, maybe with a few hundred thousand incoming as Jakartans who have moved elsewhere return to the city for the break.
Jakarta is Doomed says Andre Vltchek
Andre Vltchek wrote quite a thorough and scathing review of Jakarta’s public transport system and compared it to cities in Africa, Japan, and China. Jakarta is the only city in the world with population of more than 10 million without a mass rapid transit system.
The existing public transport modes are practically unmaintained, unmanageable, not integrated, and clearly unplanned. Rarely anything seems to be done with the bigger picture in mind as Vltchek hits it right on the head:
As with anything else in Jakarta, the system is not designed to improve the life of the ordinary citizens; in this case to ease traffic congestion and to move millions of people in safety and comfort. It is designed as a ‘project’ designed to enriching private companies that share their profits with corrupt officials.
It’s quite a long piece but really worth your time. Would be interested to see if anyone can come up with a counterargument to this essay.
Supir taxi yang enggak tau jalan itu…
Ibaratnya koki yang enggak punya indra penciuman.
This past year or so (maybe longer), there’s been a flood of new taxi drivers in Jakarta. You are more likely to get a cab with a new driver than experienced ones (unless you happen to be on the premium cabs, you’ll know which ones they are from sight). As a result, a lot of them don’t know the roads.
Contrary to popular belief, Jakarta is technically not a city, it’s a province made up of five big cities, South, East, West, North, and Central Jakarta, and one regency, the Thousand Islands. Unless you regularly do cross-town runs, you’re not expected to know the roads in other parts of town. If you’re a cabbie though, you’re supposed to know major landmarks, tourist attractions, significant buildings, and malls (there’s more than 100 of them).
It’s a wonder then that plenty of regular cabbies don’t know these places, and these include those of Jakarta’s most well known cab company, the Blue Bird Group.
More than half the time I get on a BBG cab I have to give directions to the driver because he’s new, but these are not for obscure or specific destinations. These are areas like Kemang, Pondok Indah, Blok M, Sudirman, Senayan, all the major locations of South Jakarta. It’s like a New York cabbie not knowing where Manhattan, Queens, or Brooklyn are, or a Melbourne cabbie not knowing how to go to Fitzroy, Collingwood, South Yarra, or Glenferrie from the city.
Last year I got dropped off 10 minutes into what would have been a 40 minute cab ride from Senayan to Pondok Indah because the guy had no idea where Pondok Indah is and he said he knows every road in Jakarta except in the South. Fucking ridiculous isn’t it?
What the fuck was the guy doing in the south if he had no idea where to go in that part of town? He should have just pissed off back to wherever he came from rather than taking me on board.
Friends have told stories of how they had to tell cabbies how to get from Blok M (a major transit hub) to Ratu Plaza, a 30 year old landmark that’s at the tip of Senayan. That’s a 10-15 minute ride with regular traffic. The country’s biggest and most well known stadium, the GBK, is in Senayan and these drivers had no idea where it is.
So yes, as the quote above from Alfa says, “a cabbie who doesn’t know the roads is like a chef with no taste buds.”
Sky! Sky! Sky!
Clear blue sky over Jakarta
Sent from my iPhone
Mobile refueling trailers for Transjakarta buses?
“A mobile refueling system and “lane sterilization” were projects that could feasibly be implemented within 100 days, according to discussions after the two-day Sustainable Jakarta Convention.
Taufik Widianto, Transjakarta’s Busway Management Body (BLU) operation manager for equipment and infrastructure, said the mobile refueling system was urgently needed to make operations more efficient.”
Experts Suggest Plans to Improve Jakarta Busway – The Jakarta Globe
I immediately imagined something like the mid-flight refueling system for fighter planes with the massive fuel plane hovering above the smaller aircraft and a hose floating in between.
I wonder how it’s going to be implemented. It’s fun to imagine but if it turns out to be a removable refueling unit on selected bus shelters, there’s going to be some seriously disappointed people.
People before cars
“[Former Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs] Dorodjatun [Kuntjoro Jakti] said it was yet not too late for large cities such as Jakarta to move toward urban sustainability, but the city’s development planning should no longer be based on the “road” model, where spatial planning hinges on cars and road networks, but should rather focus on social and environmental aspects.”Jakarta Globe
No doubt Jakarta is a complicated city to deal with. There are no clear zoning profiles, everything is everywhere. People flock to malls instead of public open spaces. Pollution is high thanks to more than five million cars, motorbikes, trucks, and buses stuck in traffic jams all over the city.
Traffic management is almost nonexistent despite the efforts of the Traffic Management Control agency which is run by the police department. Roads are built, rebuilt, rerouted, and maintained to the whims of not the city authority but those who have the loudest voice and the most money. Potholes and road qualities not maintained according to regulations, responsibilities being tossed back and forth between real estate developers and the public office.
There are office spaces inside residential areas and vice versa, so called “central” business districts spawn uncontrollably all over Jakarta, there is a distinct lack of open space for the public to spend their free time at. Mayoral offices seemingly pointless or powerless with city authorities under control of the governor. Real estate areas pop up on what used to be natural reserves, apartments grow, marketed, and sold only to the haves, malls sprout up on nearly every other corner.
Center of government, trade, business, culture, and entertainment, that’s what Jakarta is. Some of its functions need to be jettisoned yet none wish to be away from Jakarta due to lack of infrastructure and opportunities in other areas.
Jakarta is a time bomb waiting to explode. Stress levels are high. Traffic jams are predicted to gridlock the city by 2014, some say by 2011. Right now, localized gridlocks are the norm. Try driving through jalan Sudirman from Senayan to Semanggi during daytime, or check out Karang Tengah in Cinere with one dead traffic light and no traffic police. Metro Pondok Indah any day of the week, especially Saturday.
And I haven’t even mentioned the lack of green public space although things are moving along albeit rather slowly, with Taman Menteng and that other park near Mahakam having been built.
Everybody flocks to Jakarta looking for opportunities, from the very poor to the very rich. Population control and distribution is one other difficult thing for the city to deal with. Unequal development across the Java island and indeed across the country helps worsen the issue.
Jakarta is not a healthy place to live in. It needs a coordinated effort from all of its municipalities, the different government departments, various city authorities, the business sector including real estate, transport, and construction, central government, and most importantly, its residents to fix everything that’s wrong with it.
AuliaSays 