When DKI Provincial Government Continues Road Bike Trials To Non Toll Flyover Amid Rejection Of Bicycle Community

JAKARTA - Head of the DKI Transportation Agency, Syafrin Liputo, admitted that his party will continue to conduct trials to allow road bikes to enter the Kampung Melayu-Tanah Abang Non-toll Flyover (JLNT).

It is known that currently the DKI Provincial Government has imposed a four-week trial of road bikes entering the Kampung Melayu-Tanah Abang JLNT, carried out every Saturday-Sunday at 05.00-08.00 western Indonesia time.

"This is the fourth trial (week). We will evaluate it for the next trial," Syafrin told reporters, Sunday, June 13.

In fact, there are already several opposing parties, such as the Bike to Work Indonesia bicycle community, the Indonesian Road Safety Association, the Committee for the Elimination of Leaded Gasoline, and the Pedestrian Coalition. They are against it because the road bike entry to JLNT is a discriminatory policy.

However, Syafrin admitted that he had no problem with the conflict. According to him, criticism of road bikes entering JLNT will be accommodated to be taken into consideration in the preparation of road bike track regulations.

"The purpose of this trial is to get as many inputs, criticisms, suggestions as possible in order to improve. So, input that is constructive for the implementation of this JLNT as a road bike track will also be poured into the future," he explained.

Moreover, he mentioned that there was a significant increase in the number of road bike users on JLNT. In the first week of testing, last Sunday, May 23, the number of road bike users who took part in the JLNT trial was 1,666 cyclists. This number increased 77 percent in the second week, namely as many as 2,499 road bike cyclists on Saturday, May 29 and May 30.

“Last week's third trial also rose 62.3 percent (from the previous week) with 4,005 cyclists passing. We continue to monitor and count the number of cyclists who use the JLNT as a road bike track,” he explained.

Meanwhile, a member of the Indonesian Road Safety Association community, Rio admitted that his party regretted the attitude of the DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan who decided to test road bikes on JLNT without involving all parties.

"This JLNT trial only involves a few cyclists. Meanwhile, the JLNT is owned by many people," said Rio.

Actually, Rio and all those who oppose JLNT only for road bike cyclists do not have their own sentiments towards sports cyclists. It's just that they don't want unfair policies.

"We don't have a problem with our sports bike friends. What we focus on is inconsequential regulations. This regulation arises from several stages. Well, we hope this stage can go through the right mechanism," he said.

Therefore, after having discussions with all bicycle communities and the Department of Transportation, Rio asked that future policies should involve all parties.

"So, this is the agreement. If there is a follow-up trial, we ask that there be no more policies that suddenly appear that everyone doesn't know about. In the end, it turned out like this. Finally, there was a polemic," he explained.