Run and Bike Jakarta: Car Free Day

In my recent times in Jakarta, I got myself involved in whats known as Car Free Day in Jakarta.
What it means is that, from 6 am to 11am, Jalan Sudirman is closed to all private cars every Sunday. 

Thousands and thousands of Jakartans take to road instantly becoming kings and queens of the road.

The importance of Jalan Sudirman to Jakarta's road transport system is like Jalan Sultan Sulaiman to KL. Imagine that road being closed.

The mayor of Jakarta has taken a huge risk in going ahead with initiative considering Jakarta's legendary macet (traffic jam).

But to thousands of Jakartans, the Car Free Day is a social event cum walking and cycling with family and friends. 

Everytime I am at the Car Free Day.... I become alive. I enjoy the human interaction and the great Indonesian politeness. 

This is where I stop this blog. I have invited a 16 year old Jakartan to share his feelings and views of what Car Free Day means to his people.

Car Free Day (Raka Ibrahim Anshafarie)

Being a resident of Jakarta, one of the most surreal experiences you’ll ever have in this town is, hands down, the Car Free Day.

I mean, think about it. Every Sunday, the main street of Jakarta transformed itself. The Hotel Indonesia Roundabout, normally a bustling metropolitan centre street choked to near asphyxia with a parade of cars, motorcycles, and metro mini buses spewing fumes into every man, woman, and child’s lungs, suddenly turning into a park... of sorts. A place where youths can bring their skateboards and their bicycles and practice tricks. A place where people can hang out in the streets of Senayan and buy food from the street vendors without having to fear that anytime now, a bus will come round, hit them, and take them into the middle of next week. Jakarta’s main street – and therefore, arguably, Indonesia’s main street – turning into a place of the people, for the people. For a resident used to the hustle and bustle of the late-afternoon Jakarta traffic jam, it’s almost like stepping into a parallel universe.

But what does the Car Free Day mean, really, for the average Jakartan? I stepped out of my comfort zone and asked some random residents what they think about the Car Free Day. Zaka, a twenty year old music journalist, certainly thinks the benefits are mostly environmental in nature. “Car Free Day is one of the government’s best breakthroughs, and it’s a very efficient way of reducing pollution. Maybe we should have even more Car Free Days. One or two days a week?” Of course, the environmental benefits are one reason to exalt the Car Free Day. 

Geri, a twenty-three year old freelancer, takes a more skeptical view, though. “Car Free Day is just a way for street vendors to gain more money. And not just them. Sometimes we have events with celebrities and what have you.” Still, it’s not all bad. “But it doesn’t take away from the essential fact for us urban citizens. Which is that we need to wake up earlier, go out and do some sport, and step out of our monotonous routine. To enjoy a different kind of atmosphere in Jakarta.”

                                                      (GERI)

Take a good, long, hard look at that final sentence. ‘Enjoy a different kind of atmosphere in Jakarta.’ You get the feeling that the love for Car Free Day also comes from an altogether different perspective. A sense that you’re taking back the streets. A sense of, plain and simple, escapism. “Car Free Day is a way for people from the Suburbs and Jakartans alike to just go out and go crazy in the busy streets of Jakarta!” said Richard, a twenty one year old resident. Personally, I cannot emphasize this point more nor can I more eloquently put it. Car Free Day has grown to become something much more than just the simple act of trying to reduce pollution. By using the normally hectic streets of Jakarta as a place for sports, for recreation, for socialization, for fun and games, the residents of Jakarta has taken back the city that they’ve seemingly lost. They’ve reintroduced the concept of ‘public space’.

                                         (RICHARD)

Allow me to explain this concept. As globalization rears its head on the Indonesian capital, it seems that everyone on this fine city just has no time to slow down and enjoy life, even for a second. No time for sports. No time for recreation. No time for simple socialization. No time to have a little kickabout with your mates. And with new malls and skyscrapers being erected faster than you can snap your fingers and blink, you get the sense that not only do we have no more time to have fun, we also have no more place to have fun. That’s why Taman Menteng, for instance, sticks out like a sore thumb. A mere five minutes away from the skyscrapers of Sarinah, you find a beautifully built park where someone can play exercise freely, without being interrupted by passing commuters or smoke-spewing metro mini buses. Taman Menteng is, therefore, a sanctuary. A place of refuge from the office buildings and malls. A place where we can, quite simply, revert to being human.

This innate sense of returning to our roots, of enjoying and appreciating the ‘other side in life’ of Jakarta, I suppose, is what the Car Free Day shares with Taman Menteng. It’s a way to remember and celebrate the simpler side of life that we, in Jakarta, seems to have forgotten. It’s a way to reintroduce that special bond between people that we seem to have neglected because of the constraints of everyday life. It’s a way to slow down, relax, have fun, and just have a little bit of space to be yourself. Remember those good old days when you can just run around, talk to your friends, and buy surprisingly good food from street vendors without having to worry about the stock exchange or that big meeting at work? In my case the big exam.