Once every week Indonesia’s capital reveals how beautiful, quiet and clean it could actually be, if it only tries hard enough.
The hotel restaurant, unlike my hotel room, had windows. As I ate my breakfast – doing in Jakarta as Jakartans do by eating spicy fried rice, baked chicken and fish crackers – I gazed out at the streets of the Thamrin district, an area near the middle of the city. What I saw surprised me: The main thoroughfare that ran from the southern reaches of Jakarta to the central Monas square was not clogged with motorcycles and automobiles as it had been the day before when my taxi negotiated the traffic jams to reach my hotel. Instead, as I could clearly see that Sunday morning (the first I would ever spend in the city), the wide street was crowded with pedestrians and people on bicycles.
“Apa?” I asked the waitress as I pointed out the window, hoping she would understand my rudimentary Indonesian for the word “What?”
“Car Free Day,” she said without needing to translate, since that’s exactly what Indonesians call it.
I rejoiced. A car-free day! If I had not seen it for myself I would hardly have believed it. Jakarta positively loves the car – much to the great inconvenience of the few pedestrians and cyclists who brave the traffic. Nevertheless, the city closes down one of its main streets to host a car-free day every Sunday? This was a stunning revelation and an opportunity not to be missed.
I finished my breakfast and after one last happy glance at the people milling up and down Jalan MH Thamrin I hurried up to my room with the aim of grabbing my camera and a bottle of water before heading out again for a car-free stroll around Jakarta. Since my room was windowless, the only views I had were of a wall-sized photograph of the New York City skyline at night and whatever the cable TV channels chose to show me, so as I prepared to go out I amused myself by imagining that what awaited me was along the lines of what I always enjoyed in Copenhagen: many kilometers of carless streets winding through the middle of the Danish capital. Jakarta had the same? I was beginning to like the place.
I didn’t take the elevator back downstairs until just after 11 o’clock (it was a Sunday morning, after all), but with the whole day still ahead of me I eagerly walked out the front door of the hotel and crossed the small side street to get to Jalan Thamrin…
…where I saw no pedestrians at all, only a wide thoroughfare already clogged with cars, motorcycles and buses, all honking their annoying horns and spewing clouds of noxious fumes. Had I hallucinated the pedestrians? Had my waitress likewise been deluded and mistaken?
As I soon discovered, Car Free Day is real enough, only it does not last the full day. It would more accurately be called Car Free Morning, except it doesn’t last the full morning, either.
However, Car Free Day is nonetheless still a welcome event in Indonesia’s capital. It attracts thousands of people every Sunday to the downtown core where they can spend a few hours ruling where the car is usually king.
Car Free Day was started in Jakarta in May 2002 and was initially only held on the last Sunday of the month, but at first the hours were from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Apparently, the motoring public complained about length of time Jalan Thamrin and Jalan Sudirman were closed, so in 2009 it was shortened by two hours, ending at noon. Two years later Car Free Day began to be held twice a month and a year after that four times a month, but ending at 11 a.m.
Car Free Day has certainly proved popular. At present, people don’t just participate in Central Jakarta. The event no longer only takes places on Thamrin and Sudirman, but in many other places around the capital and outside of it. Jalan RA Fadillah Cijantung in East Jakarta is closed to cars every Sunday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and more than a dozen other streets throughout the city are closed at least one Sunday a month on a staggered basis.
Elsewhere in the country the list of cities with at least one car-free day per month grows: Bogor, Bekasi, Depok, Bandung, Tasikmalaya, Sukabumi, Tangerang, South Tangerang, Surabaya, Kediri, Semarang, Surakarta and Yogyakarta on Java, Aceh, Medan, Pekanbaru and Padang on Sumatra and Makassar on Sulawesi.
From the beginning, according to Car Free Day Indonesia’s official website, the event had specific goals: to reduce air pollution and discourage the use of private vehicles. Most people, however, seem to participate for another reason altogether: It’s fun.
Many people regularly take advantage of Indonesia’s temporarily car-free streets – up to 100,000 at a time in Jakarta alone. There are, of course, those who just want to stroll or pedal through exhaust-free air, but there are plenty of other things to do. Hawkers sell food, beverages, souvenirs, toys, or clothing from handcarts, from satchels slung over their shoulders, or from tarps spread out on the pavement. Numerous musicians sing and play instruments as they wander through the crowds or stand on stages. There are many other kinds of performers as well – up to and including fire eaters. Some people dance to entertain and others dance to exercise – in great numbers. Ondel-ondel (large male and female effigies inspired by the local Betawi culture) sway and twirl, their uncostumed minders soliciting money from onlookers as payment for the spectacle. Still more people just stroll around, enjoy the cleanish air and take in the sights.
In short, Car Free Day has something for everyone. The only thing wrong with it is that it doesn’t last nearly long enough.
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