Jakarta Car Free Day

Jakarta Located on the northwest coast of java with total area : 650 square kilometres. Jakarta is the capital city of Republic Indonesia. it is also the country’s economic, culture, and political centre. Jakarta has grown rapidly and it is the most populated city in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia, and is the thirteenth most populated city in the world. Total population is 9.6 million at nights, 12 million during the day.

Every big city in the world has its own problem. it depends on how the government manage that problem to make it better. In Jakarta, we can see traffic jam during work hours and air pollution covered the city. Based on the Jakarta condition’s, perhaps Jakarta needs more an open space area for social activity, sport, creativity and etc. That’s the beginning of the ‘Car Free Day’ idea in Jakarta.

Car Free Day held by so many cities and countries all over the world, such Bogota, France and etc. September 22^th is World Car Free Day. Jakarta Car Free Day has started since 2005. The Standard Operational Procedure of Jakarta Car Free Day regulated by local act No.2/2005.  At the beginning, the event was conducted every month, then became twice a month, and now there’s Car Free Day every week, on Sunday from 6 am - 11 am.

The Car Free Day coordinators closed the streets of the city from cars and invited local pedestrian to exercise and having their activities on the streets that normally full of cars and traffic. You can see Car Free Day location below :

·   Province level                          : Jl. Sudirman - Jl. MH Thamrin;

·   East Jakarta municipality          : Jl. Pemuda;

·   North Jakarta municipality       : Jl. Danau Sunter Selatan;

·   Central Jakarta municipality     : Jl. Letjend Soeprapto;

·   South Jakarta municipality       : Jl. Sisingamangaraja;

·   West Jakarta municipality        : Kota Tua area.

From all the location which mentioned above, I recommend Jl. Sudirman - Jl. MH Thamrin than the others. we can easily find the access to get to this road because its location in the center of Jakarta. We can get there by using public transportation, Transjakarta was operated at the Car Free Day event. Along the road from Jl. Sudirman to Jl. MH Thamrin, there’s the icon of Jakarta such as Gelora Bung Karno Stadion, Patung Selamat Datang Bunderan HI and Monumen Nasional (Monas).

Car Free Day programme has aims to reduce air pollution, sport promotion for healthy life, and education in efficiency of car usage in to public transportation, ride a bicycle or walk. People usually come to do sport like running, jogging, cycling and etc. Beside that, people also come to enjoy live music, festival, art show, social event and etc.

Seeing the success of Car Free Day in Jakarta, Car Free Day programme was adopted by so many city in Indonesia such Solo, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Medan and Bogor.