TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - City Transportation Agency head Syafrin Liputo announced that Jakarta would set permanent bicycle lanes across the city’s streets after the dissemination period ended or November 19 by constructing road separators.

“The public dissemination of Law No. 22/2009 and Regional Regulation No. 5/2014 in which stipulated that people using motorized vehicles are obliged to give the priority for pedestrians and bikers,” Syafrin told Tempo, Sunday, September 29.

Syafrin did not deny that during the trial period, many motorized vehicle drivers broke through the bike lanes. However, he would not impose any sanction for them.

He reiterated that his staffers would conduct a patrol using bicycles every three hours to educate the public in light of the bike lanes. “We will surely enforce the law later in the form of giving a ticket by police officers and towing by Transport Agency for those who park their vehicles in the bike lanes,” he said.

At present, the city's Bina Marga Agency is constructing more bike lanes in five regions of Jakarta following the Governor’s plan to issue a gubernatorial instruction on the bike to work.

“[We plan to] build bike lanes up to 65 kilometers in five regions until December 2019. Hopefully, Jakarta will have five permanent bike lanes this year,” said Bina Marga Agency head Hari Nugraha.

Hari mentioned that the construction would be divided into three phases. The first phase would be a track length of 25 kilometers on roads affected by the odd-even policy, while the second phase would be 23 kilometers in length on Jalan Jendral Sudirman, Jalan Sisingamangaraja, Jalan Panglima Polim, and Jalan RS Fatmawati Raya.

Additionally, the third phase of the bicycle lane construction would be on six routes, viz. Jalan Tomang Raya, Jalan Cideng Timur, Jalan Kebon Sirih, Jalan Matraman Raya, Jalan Jatinegara Barat, and Jalan Jatinegara Timur with a track length of 15 kilometers. Thus, the total bike lanes would be 63 kilometers across the capital.

M JULNIS FIRMANSYAH