While the issue of motorcyclists driving on Jakarta’s sidewalks has long been a problem, it’s been in the spotlight since last month after a video showing a protest by Koalisi Pejalan Kaki (Pedestrian’s Coalition, which works to protect our rights to walk safely) showing the group’s members politely facing down several motorcyclists angered by their sidewalk sweeping demo went viral.
After the video was widely shared by thousands of fed-up Jakarta pedestrians, the police performed operations around the capital to stop the sidewalk scofflaws, claiming to have caught over 5,000 misbehaving motorcyclists in just 5 days. The government also promised that they would continue to crack down on sidewalk misuse throughout the month of August.
While the Jakarta government may be increasing its sidewalk sterilization efforts, it’s clear that they have a long way to go if they are to succeed in keeping the city’s walkways clean. And they’ll need a lot of help to do it. Fortunately, the fierce volunteers at Koalisi Pejalan Kaki are also working hard to protect pedestrians elsewhere, as evidenced by their latest action, which took place today on Jalan Dewi Sartika in East Jakarta.
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As you can see in the video, one of the coalition’s volunteers faces down an absolute torrent of motorcyclists on the sidewalk and directing them back onto the road with his signs, one of which says “Greet the One Asphalt” (perhaps a play on the pro-Jokowi phrase ‘Salam Dua Jari’) and the other which says “Respect the Rights of Pedestrians”.
While a few of the motorcyclists ignore the protester and go to his right, the vast majority grudgingly turn right back onto the road. At least none of the motorists stop to berate the protester or threaten him with violence like in the last viral video, so we can count that as some kind of progress, right?
