A viral video showing members of a pedestrian rights activist group’s facing down angry motorcyclists called out for driving on the sidewalk put the age-old problem of Jakarta’s sidewalks being abused and misused back in the spotlight recently. Although it’s long been illegal to drive on the sidewalks, police rarely enforce the rule.
Jakarta Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat wants that to change that, asking the police to be firm and crack down on sidewalk scofflaws with fines and even imprisonment if necessary.
“I said they (motorcyclists using sidewalks) can be jailed, so I asked for their help,” Djarot said yesterday after meeting with Jakarta Traffic Police Director Halim Praggara, as quoted by Kompas.
Djarot was referring to Regional Regulation No. 5 of 2014 on Transportation, which states that motor vehicle drivers are prohibited from operating a motor vehicle on bike lanes and pedestrian facilities such as sidewalks.
The law also states that violators can be punished with a fine of Rp 250,000 or a maximum sentence of one month in jail.
Djarot said that motorcyclists are no longer concerned about safety, not just in terms of riding on sidewalks but also in that they are using helmets less.
The governor said that one obstacle the police face is accusations of discrimination against motorcyclists when they start enforcing such regulations. But he reminded law enforcers that those rules were put in place to protect the safety of motorcyclists as well as pedestrians and other vehicles, so the police needed to ignore such accusations and be firm about enforcing the law uniformly.
