[sustran] Re: Jakarta: Activists say Carfree Days are "A Waste"

[Walter Hook]

Can u explain why this might be the case?  Actual measurements of air
emissions are subject to all sorts of normal weather based variation and are
largely meaningless unless collected over many many days under similar
conditions.  But perhaps there are reasons why it might be true.  London’s
congestion charge for instance led to a big shift towards more bus and taxi
and motorbike use.  In London buses and taxis use diesel which is heavier in
particulates than the cars, and motorbikes are also heavier in particulates.
Maybe in Bogota people are taking more taxis and traditional buses on car
free day, which are not banned?   If traditional bus use is up, these are
very polluting vehicles due to the poor quality of diesel fuel in Colombia.
So its not impossible, but it could just be that the data is poor. 

 

  _____  

From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf
Of Carlosfelipe Pardo
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 10:42 AM
To: sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org; johnernst at itdp.org;
damantoro at gmail.com; Breithaupt Manfred GTZ 4413; dino.teddyputra at gmail.com
Subject: [sustran] Re: Jakarta: Activists say Carfree Days are "A Waste"

 

Funny... The Universidad de los Andes did a study last September comparing
days with ciclovia (Sunday carfree) and regular days in Bogotá, and found,
among others, that PM10 was 13 times higher during a weekday, and noise was
7 times higher. This was done with actual measurements during various days,
so it would be more relevant than the opinions shown below... the full study
is available (in Spanish) from Olga Lucía Sarmiento
<osarmien at uniandes.edu.co> 





Best regards,


Carlos.



2009/2/24 Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory <edelman at greenidea.eu>


Activists: Car-Free Days Are ‘A Waste’


http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/city/article/10931.html

Environmental activists on Monday urged the Jakarta Administration to
temporarily halt its car-free days on selected city roads, saying a
re-evaluation was needed because the event had failed to reduce air
pollution and loose regulations have resulted in many violations, including
those by senior officials.

“Legally, the car-free days cannot be stopped, but the city administration
should halt them temporarily and conduct a review of what went wrong.
Honestly, it’s been such a waste,” Selamet Daroyni, the executive director
of the Jakarta branch of Indonesian Forum for the Environment, or Walhi,
told a press conference.

Selamet said car-free days, generally on Sundays, had failed to achieve the
short-term objective of minimizing air pollution and also had failed to
encourage Jakarta residents to be more environmentally friendly and less
dependent on cars.

“If we perceive this issue from the three success indicators, I’d say these
events did not help much,” Selamet said. 

He said the indicators were public participation, air pollution reduction
and public obedience, including by government officials and law enforcers.

Ahmad Safrudin, of the Committee for Phasing Out Leaded Gasoline, said
car-free days merely relocated traffic flow from one place to another
without reducing air pollutants.

He said that a report by the Jakarta Environmental Management Board, or
BPLHD, that air pollution has decreased significantly was unreliable.

“Jakarta has five air quality monitoring systems, but only one of them is
working, so I doubt the report,” he said.

Ahmad said the inefficiency of car-free days had been proven by many
violations, with some of the violators being government officials and
policemen.

Responding to criticism, Rina Suryani, the BPLHD head of natural resources
monitoring, said they had scientific measurements to prove that car-free
days had in fact contributed significantly to air pollution reduction. 

“In some parts of Jakarta, the air quality has gotten better because of this
program,” she said.

Rina said the board could not enforce sanctions against violators because
the 2005 bylaw enabling car-free days had not stipulated any.

Jakarta’s car-free days began in September 2007 and are held on the last
Sunday of each month. 

This year BPLHD has scheduled 22 road closure events.

-- 
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Green Idea Factory
 
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CAR is over. If you want it.
 
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- B. Brecht (with slight modification)


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