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

[Carlosfelipe Pardo]

The methodology for the Bogotá study was pretty good since was developed by
the expert there in air quality plus an epidemiologist. I think the
difference between the Bogotá study and the Jakarta numbers is that the
Bogotá one was done in a road where there were no parallel roads with cars,
plus near a park (Virrey)... yes, to an extent biased, but they proved a
point. I was talking at that time with Olga Lucía to see if there could be a
better way to do a real experimental study, with four situations, but it's
pretty impossible. The other thing is that they were comparing Sunday with
weekday, which can also have differences.
(ccing Olga Lucía, maybe she can give some feedback).

Carlos.

2009/2/24 Walter Hook <whook at itdp.org>

>  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 <sustran-discuss-bounces%2Bwhook>=itdp.org@
> 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.
>
> --
>
> --------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> Todd Edelman
>
> Green Idea Factory
>
>
>
> Urbanstr. 45
>
> D-10967 Berlin
>
> Germany
>
>
>
> Skype: toddedelman
>
> Mobile: ++49 0162 814 4081
>
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>
>
>
> edelman at greenidea.eu
>
> www.greenidea.eu
>
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>
>
>
> CAR is over. If you want it.
>
>
>
> "Fort mit der Autostadt und was Neues hingebaut!"
>
> - B. Brecht (with slight modification)
>
>
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