Traversing the city

AS THE streets are relegated to vehicles, one no longer travels to enjoy the cityscape. Every destination must be predetermined to avoid being trapped, and what is disjointed must be connected. Since 2005, the existence of the Cipularang toll road has not only changed one’s rites of travel and sent Jakartans to the city of Bandung every weekend, but also inspired various new business opportunities. To T. Ismail Reza, one of these opportunities is the Bandung Supermall, a new welcoming monument in Bandung.

In Jakarta itself, the city has been tens of years late in handling the problems of transportation, as so many vehicles have choked the streets of the city, starting from personal vehicles up to the vegetables carts that also pass the Semanggi interchange. Bambang Susantono presents us a thorough review of the humanistic transportation, before Jakarta is trapped in a total traffic jam in 2014—a nightmare for the future of Jakarta. Bitter experiences in the past might have made people highly dependent on personal vehicles. Anissa S. Febrina reviews this matter and shows us that one does not necessarily have to own a house and a decent parking space before owning a personal vehicle, as the people of Jakarta always have creative solutions to answer every possible problem.

On the other hand, bus stops in Jakarta might be the least fortunate case. As I describe in my essay, the bus stops are the dustbins of the streets. The bus service is bad; the design of the bus stops does not consider their users—be it the bus passengers and the street vendors. These bus stops have been neglected not only by the government but also by the architects, who do not consider them as a part of the design challenges of a space.

Lastly, we return to the streets of Bandung in 2002. The experience of having an accident due to the street holes has triggered Handy Hermansyah to conduct a public performance on the streets of Bandung. Quoting what Agung Hujatnikajennong says in his essay, what Handy has done is not a common thing to do, even for the urban planning officials at the regional government.

With regards,



Ardi Yunanto
Editor