Along with the efforts to reduce emmissions to conserve the environment, campaigns have been made to do cycling in various major cities of Indonesia. To realise a cyclist friendly city, the role of the local government in providing supporting facilities is imperative.
This was said by State Secretary, Dr. Pratikno, M.Soc.Sc., during a fun cycling event with Gadjah Mada Gowes (GaMaGo) community on Saturday (14/1).
"Indonesia has to get more environmentally friendly. We can start this with cycling. But I admit that this has to be supported by the local governments to provide the infrastructure,” he said.
Different from cities in Europe with bicycle tracks, Indonesia lacks of this facility. On the heavily populated Java, it is difficult to build a special track for cyclists, but it is highly potential to build on islands outside Java.
"Regional leaders outside Java have big opportunities to prepare bicycle tracks since the start for the public transportation facilities,” hes aid.
He added that character building is important for road users on road sharing and tolerance habit. "Cycling is not the sole responsibility of the cyclists, but also our shared responsibility. There’s the policy, there’s the infrastructures, but there’s also culture to share and respect,” he said.
On that occassion he asked Indonesian people to return to cycling for daily activities to reduce emmissions and give practical and healthy solution to transportation problems. He hoped the UGM biking community could re-introduce the habit, using available facilities.
“Here we are part of the important campaign, to be the trendsetter for cycling. Let’s start from us cycling together as best as we could,” he said.