30.0 Is Jakarta’s Population Starving for Pedestrian Friendly Urban Environments?

There are many who agree pedestrian oriented urban environments provide a high and enriching quality of life.

In the course of my work, I often hear the comment from developers and professionals, “Indonesians don’t walk”!  I always reply with the question, “Who do you see in masses on any given day, walking on Orchard Rd in Singapore…, Indonesians!”  So this totally contradicts the theory that “Indonesians don’t walk”.  Even at home in the Capital City of Jakarta on any given Sunday morning you can witness thousands of Indonesians along Jalan Sudirman, walking along with running and biking!  So this further contradicts the common theory “Indonesians don’t walk”.

Walking on Singapore's Orchard Road.

Walking on Jakarta's Jl Sudirman on a Sunday Morning

So the question is why this perception that “Indonesians don’t walk”?  I take it to mean that Indonesians don’t walk as part of their daily life activities like walk to the market, walk to the salon, walk to work, walk to the office, walk to visit or meet friends, etc.  And if this is the case but they are more than willing to walk along Orchard Road, walk along Jalan Sudirman or walk in one of the may air conditioned shopping malls, what is the reason? 

Sunday morning Jakarta residents come out in masses just to walk!

The answer is simple and basic, THEY DO NOT HAVE SUITABLE ENVIRONMENTS TO WALK AS PART OF DAILY LIFE!  So what are the characteristics that make it a suitable environment to walk along Sudirman on an early Sunday morning but not suitable every other time outside of the Sunday morning?           And how does this list compare to Orchard Road which is walkable any time any day.  I came up with a simple list below of the 8 most important points.

No.	Factor	Jl Sudirman, Jakarta on Sunday Mornings	Orchard Road, Singapore
1.	Safety Comfort	Comfortable walking surface safe from cars and pollution because road is closed to all traffic except Bus Way.	Pedestrian sidewalks are wide and mostly separated from traffic by landscape.
2.	Environmental Comfort	Cool – because of early morning, lots of shade from the low sun angle and tall buildings.	Comfortable because of shad trees, covered walkways and shops lining the road so people are always moving in and out of air conditioned spaces.
3.	Background to Socialize	It’s a real social event to be out with family and friends.	It’s a real social space to be with family and friends.
4.	Entertainment People Watching	It’s also a social event for people watching.	It’s also a social event for people watching.
5.	Entertainment Place to be Seen	It’s has also become a social event to be seen, with parades of bikes, walking dogs and a venue for street performers.	It’s also a place to be seen as well as a place for street performances and events.
6.	Entertainment F&B / Shopping	Further it is supported by vendors for food and other goods and perhaps in some cases the vendors become the reason to go out for a walk to have some food.	Food and Beverages as well as shopping is in fact probably the main draw of Orchard Road.
7.	Accessibility	Being a non-work day it is relatively easy to find parking nearby.  And being a non-work day the Bus Way runs un- interrupted from traffic jams.	The MRT stations stop directly along this road as well as numerous buses provide direct access from almost anywhere on the island.  In addition there is an abundance of parking within the buildings and an abundant amount of taxi stands. Lots of residential and hotel density in walking distance.
8.	Exercise and Health	A place to exercise as a social event whether it be biking, running or just walking.	Walking as a daily form of exercise while you engage in other activities above, multi-tasking.

Street Vendor enhance the walking experience and provide necessities

The Social aspect of being out with friends like these school children on their bikes is a motivating factor to experience urban pedestrian areas.

Jl Sudirman on Sunday Morning is a place "to be seen" like the youth showing off their bikes.

Jl Sudirman's Street Performers are always an added treat for pedestrians.

The things that Jl Sudirman lacks that would make it a real pedestrian oriented urban area which would be suitable for walking anytime, I would summarize as follows:

1.  Lack of Buildings fronting the main street pedestrian walkways.  Most builds are cut off by in internal site road for car drop off.  No retail or F&B fronting the road.

2.  Pedestrian side walks are not continuous of a scale suitable for a major pedestrian road.

3.  Lack of sufficient residential and hotel density to keep a base population of pedestrians on the road.

4.  Lack of good public transportation to bring in the significant population from surrounding areas without causing traffic jams.

Most building have large setbacks with internal roads cutting the building edge from the insufficiently sized road side pedestrian way.  

So my answer to the statement, “Indonesians don’t walk”  will continue to be, “ They don’t walk in Indonesia because they don’t have suitable environments to walk”. 

The government has done well to organize the Sunday road closures, now it’s time to organize the permanent Urban Planning and Design of Jalan Sudirman and other places so it will be suitable for pedestrians all the time. 

Jiwa Studio, Singapore 

September  2014