August 27, 2025
JAKARTA – The Jakarta administration’s plan to trim sidewalks along the heavily congested TB Simatupang road in South Jakarta has sparked widespread criticism, with critics warning it undermines pedestrian rights and contradicts the city’s vision of becoming a “global city”.
The east–west corridor has long been notorious for gridlock, particularly during rush hour, a situation worsened in recent months by water pipe installation works that reduced two lanes to one. To ease traffic, Governor Pramono Anung earlier instructed his administration to take short-term measures, including repurposing sidewalks at bottleneck points to widen road space.
“We apologize to Jakarta residents for the inconvenience, and we urge the public to switch to mass transportation to help reduce traffic volume,” Pramono’s special staffer Yustinus Prastowo said in a statement on Saturday.
The plan, however, has drawn sharp opposition from pedestrian advocacy groups. Road Safety Association (RSA) Indonesia said trimming the sidewalks ignores social justice and runs counter to a commitment to sustainable transport and equal access.
“Sidewalks are basic rights for all citizens, not a privilege,” the group said on Sunday, urging Governor Pramono to better assess resident’s actual needs and to refrain from making “knee-jerk” policies in response to viral social media discourse.
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The Pedestrian Coalition echoed the concern, calling the plan “a setback” for Jakarta’s decades-long push to build sustainable urban mobility.
Coordinator Alfred Sitorus argued that congestion should serve as a disincentive for private vehicle use, encouraging residents to instead rely on public transport, cycling or walking.
Such disincentive, he added, could be further reinforced through policies like electronic road pricing and progressive parking fees in congested areas, including TB Simatupang.
“Instead of strengthening pedestrian facilities, bicycle lanes and mass public transportation, Governor Pramono has taken an anarchic step that undermines the urban sustainable mobility strategy, an initiative painstakingly built at great public expense through taxpayer money,” Alfred said last week.
He pointed out that the city administration has yet to fulfill its 2017 promise of constructing 1,600 kilometers of sidewalks.
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Amid mounting criticism, Pramono on Monday clarified that only sidewalks already inaccessible due to the ongoing project would be temporarily repurposed.
“What we mean are sidewalks that cannot be used anyway because of the ongoing project,” he said as quoted by Antara. “This is only a temporary traffic engineering measure.”
Alongside the sidewalk plan, the city has deployed additional Transjakarta buses, accelerated the ongoing construction works and is considering longer-term solutions such as an underpass or flyover at the TB Simatupang intersection.
This year, Pramono’s administration has rolled out a series of public transportation initiatives, including the revamp of the overcrowded Tanah Abang commuter line station and an expansion of Transjakarta routes.