ANTI MACET

No More Street Traffic Congestion. Share Your Car and Ride Your Bicycle.

Jakarta Bike Lane 2009 : Out of Sight


Bicyclists fear getting hit from behind and so request Bike Lane (BL), but not for the experience one. Many collision scenarios between Bicyclist and motorist are come in front not from behind. Collision between motorist and bicyclist happened to be on the road intersection where car in a reverse way turning left or right. If The Bicyclist is experience enough there is little chance of accident.

There has been talk about Jakarta having BL from Blok M in the South Jakarta to Taman Suropati in Central Jakarta. Last month in December 2008 , Fauzi Bowo , The Governor of DKI Jakarta, said that BL development was pending due to lack of user (bicyclist). I’m not saying that Jakarta has so much bicyclist counting thousand member of Bike to Work (B2W) Indonesia and also thousand member of web based communities sepedaku.com . Some might say that this is political phrase into a negative way of having BL in Jakarta.

So what is Bike Lane? Is it worth for having it in Jakarta? Let’s talk about it. Road is being used by motorists (car&motorcycle) and they have to share it with other vehicle such as Bicycle and often with people side walking. Jakarta is hell of traffic ubiquitously on my sayings. From working days to weekend also in the long holidays, Jakarta’s traffic is hardly to beat. In between motorist and bicyclist there are plenty space on the road that has to be share. Bike Lane draw clear stripe in the street side that only allowed bicyclist to use it on road. It will look alike Bus way Lane in Jakarta but not with concrete divider.

Another form actually lost in discussion on making bicyclist safe is Wide Curb Lane (WCL). This WCL is a shared-use lane but wider and not congruent in size between the left one and the right one. Imagine that one road is divided by dashing line in the middle but the left side is wider than the one in the right. This wider lane is shared use by motorist and bicyclist. Practically WCL is BL without clear stripe where motorist can go high speed without causing hazard to bicyclist in the side. BL is typically touted as increasing bicyclist safety. Both simply provide space and thus comfort to bicyclists, and ease of passing for motorists. The stripe for BL is perceived as Safety for Bicyclist but in many studies has never been shown to actually increase safety as defined by reduced collisions.

I think we should look that providing space to bicyclist on the road is a good way to respect bicyclist on road. Bicyclist ought to have same rights on using road. The Government of DKI Jakarta should make feasibility studies whether having BL or WCL to cater the voice of increasing Bicyclist all over Jakarta. BL is best used based on best practices, if at all, on higher speed roads with few driveways, intersections, and turning movements for bicyclists and motorists, the lack of high speed bicycle descents. Otherwise on low speed roads would be better served with WCL.

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