“Wanna take a ride in my orange bajaj?” Photo: Flickr
If we’re still going to have bajajs in Jakarta, at least upgrade them from the smoke-belching nightmares that most of us are familiar with.
The Jakarta provincial government claims they are on track to completely replace the outdated orange bajajs in the capital with the more environmentally-friendly gas powered blue ones. They say they’ve replaced 7,000 orange bajajs so far.
“Every week, we scrap [orange bajajs]. So far, we’ve erased 7,000 units,” said Benjamin Bukit, head of the Jakarta Transportation Agency, as quoted by Vivanews yesterday.
The regulation to erase orange bajajs from Jakarta to lower air pollution has actually been in place since 1992. Even if the regulation is 23 years old, the provincial government is not yet pressuring orange bajaj drivers to make the switch to the blue bajaj. They also didn’t disclose how many orange bajajs are still operating in Jakarta.
Perhaps, in addition to upgrading the bajaj, the provincial government should also look to educate many of the bajaj drivers, who we all know drive like no traffic rules apply to them.
