Setiabudi Macet 1, originally uploaded by susiloadhy.

Why you should use the Jakarta busway, originally uploaded by fishkid.

Situ Gintung Tragedy -another-, originally uploaded by aris-ressy.

Situ Gintung Tragedy, originally uploaded by aris-ressy.

Setiabudi Macet 1, originally uploaded by susiloadhy.

amazing, originally uploaded by BESTPHOTO.

I am honored to share my blog of Indonesia’s Urban Studies with the readers of
the GPEIG newsletter. The blog, located at http://indonesiaurbanstudies.blogspot.com/ was created in January 2007. As mentioned in the first post of my blog, the purpose of this blog is to contribute to the advancement of urban studies and planning in Indonesia, and was inspired by the success of Randall Crane’s blog of Urban Planning Research.

My blog includes a wide-ranging collection of reflections and essays about urban issues in Indonesia, including poverty, informal sector, transportation, land uses, spatial planning, urban primacy and global warming. My reflections are primarily focused on the current urban issues in Jakarta and are based on my regular reading of two Indonesian newspapers, Kompas and The Jakarta Post. Most news stories in both newspapers are about Jakarta, and a few stories are about other cities in Indonesia. That’s why my blog posts are mainly about Jakarta.

Several urban issues in Jakarta are discussed in my blog, including the banning of
motorcyclists from Jakarta’s main roads, extortion by thugs of street vendors, an upscale neighborhood’s resistance against a new busway corridor plan, the Jakarta City Council’s rejection of a plan of converting gas stations into green areas and the change of the school start time. The blog also includes the reflections of the last three years of annual floods that inundated Jakarta. Interestingly, the floods always occurred in the first week of February. The blog documents the impacts of the flood each year and government efforts at preventing the floods. These posts were also submitted to and run by The Jakarta Post in its Op-Ed sections.

The blog also presents a number of essays including the history of urbanization and
suburbanization in Jakarta, the dominance of Jakarta in Indonesia’s economy,
urban planning and the informal sectors in developing countries, challenges of the planning profession in Indonesia, and a book review of Christopher Silver’s Planning the Megacity: Jakarta in the Twentieth Century.

Nearly 50,000 visitors have come to my blog and most of them are via Google. Many visitors also came from other websites and blogs that have a link to my blog, including the ACSP’s website. A number of students from many parts of the world contact me after visiting my blog for a variety of reasons, including asking further questions or for detailed data, asking for data sources in Indonesia, asking for definitions of urban terms, asking me to review their work on Indonesia, or simply for appreciating my work. In addition to students, a journalist of Singapore’s The Straits Times and a Norwegian journalist contacted me for their stories of Jakarta. I was also invited by the editors of an Australian magazine and several Indonesian newsletters to submit stories about urban issues in Indonesia. All these invitations and interviews came to me through visits to my blog.

Furthermore, I can trace from where and how long the visitors visit my blog. They come from countries all over the world, including countries in Africa and South America. I am amazed by their interest in Indonesia’s urban issues, and hope that my blog contributes to their interests.

When I started nearly three years ago, I never expected to get what I have accomplished with my blog today. We can witness the power of the Web in building and shaping our society. The world is now directed by the citizens of the new digital democracy. Blogging is a good way for scholars to be a part of this new world of digital democracy. I have learned from my blog that the voice of scholars in the blogosphere is well-respected and appreciated. The blog audiences have a lot of choices to read and they find the voice of scholars worth reading.

DSC01412, originally uploaded by Luis XII.

Annual floods in Jakarta point to an urgent need to protect existing green
areas in the capital – and to create new ones.

Canal - Jakarta, originally uploaded by pyjama.

The authorities often use force to ‘free’ land used by the city’s poor, but they
lack the courage to prevent construction of condominiums, malls, hotels,
commercial buildings and offices

Welcome-to-the-Greenhouse, originally uploaded by mix's.

This post is an English version of my article published in the Indonesian newspaper of Kompas on Tuesday, December 15, 2009.

The attention to climate change and global warming is now on the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark on December 7-18, 2009. This conference is expected to reach a new agreement on decreasing global emissions of greenhouse gases after the ending of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

As one of the tropical countries with large forest areas, Indonesia is expected to play an important role in absorbing the emissions of carbon dioxide that cause the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Transtoto Handadhari (Kompas, December 7, 2009) reported that Indonesian forests have the carbon dioxide absorption as many as 25,733 billion tons excluding peat forests and dry lands. The government of Indonesia set a target of reducing the carbon emissions by 26 percent in 2020 through many ways including the expansion of new forests as much as a half hectare per year, the expansion of community forests about 4 million hectares, and the decrease of hot spots about 20 percent.

The decrease of carbon dioxide emissions for addressing the global warming is not only the responsility of those who work in forests, but also that of all citizens. Urban residents play also an important role in decreasing the carbon dioxide emissions. Human activities that use fossil fuel are a big contributor in the global warming. Increasing the efficiency of electricity uses such as lighting, cooling or the uses of electronic tools and recycling are some ways that can be offered to address the global warming.

Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference, originally uploaded by United Nations Photo.

Planet Jakarta, originally uploaded by diankarl **will visit you soon**.

Motorists fought against flood, originally uploaded by Deden Rukmana.

Road of flood, originally uploaded by Deden Rukmana.

Sungai Citarum Indonesia dianugerahkan Sungai Terbersih Di Dunia, originally uploaded by omaQ.org & Red Frame Memories.

Anakku, originally uploaded by enhaka92.

Evacuate , originally uploaded by Neng Dew.

• formulate policies to meet the needs of communities including social, economic, and physical needs and they develop the strategies to make these plans work
• develop plans for land use patterns, housing needs, parks and recreation facilities, transportation systems, economic development, environmental protection and other aspects of the future
• work with the public to develop a vision of the future and to build on that vision
  function as mediator among conflicting community interests; they may also become facilitators using their professional judgment to help identify the best resolutions to the conflict
• advise public officials and citizens in shaping the future design and manage the planning process and attract public to involve in the process.
  

A practice of modernist planning is the positivistic rational comprehensive planning model (Innes, 1997; Harper and Stein, 1995). This planning model was developed systematically to find the best process in which course of action selected rationally to maximize the attainment of the relevant ends. This planning model attempts to formulate rational process of selecting the best means to achieve some pre-determined ends, a way of choosing the correct answer based on assessment of the consequences of alternative solutions.

The stages in rational planning including formulation of goals and objectives, identification and design of major alternatives for searching the goals, prediction of major sets of consequences that would be expected to follow upon adoption of each alternative, evaluation of consequences in relation to desired objectives and other important values, decision based on information provided in the preceding steps, implementation of this decision through appropriate institution, and feedback of actual program result and their assessment in light of the new decision situation have employed scientific method. Numerous scientific methods have been formulated to develop the stages in rational planning. Development of methods for each rational planning process was conducted by applying two methods of reasoning of deductive and inductive approaches.

Rationality has been extensively explored by many scholars such as Banfield, Friedmann, Mannheim, Weber, Simmie, and Faludi. Rationality is accepted in planning, since there is nothing wrong with rationality decisions after they have been formulated as long as the attempt is successful. Rational planning results in growth as a product, and the rational planning process may be viewed as a vehicle for the very process of growth. When the rational planning was used as primary planning paradigm, planning education was a matter of technical training, the focus was on the empirical and the quantitative (Harper and Stein, 1995).

Beauregard (1991), in his article entitled Without a Net: Modernist Planning and the Postmodern Abyss identifies the characteristics of modernist planning. He posits that (1) reality can be controlled and perfected, (2) the world is malleable because its internal logic can be discovered and manipulated, (3) planning is part of the struggle to make ourselves at home in a changing world., (4) planners involvement was as contributors to utilitarian understanding and not as people of action, (5) planners could claim a scientific and objective logic, (6) comprehensive solutions have a unitary logic, and (7) synthetic city allows planners to claim a privileged position in the realm of specialist.

Sandercock (1998) in her seminal book on post-modernism entitled Toward Cosmopolis: Planning for Multicultural Cities summarizes the modernist planning thought into five pillars include:

1. Planning –meaning city and regional planning- is concerned with making public/political decision more rational.
2. Planning is most effective when it is comprehensive.
3. Planning is both a science and an art, based on experience, but the emphasis is usually placed on the science. … Planning knowledge and expertise are thus grounded in positive science, with its propensity for quantitative modeling and analysis
4. Planning, as part of the modernization project, is a project of state-directed futures, with the state seen as possessing progressive, reformist tendencies, and as being separate from the economy.
5. Planning operates in ‘the public interest’ and planners’ education privileges them in being able to identify what that interest is. (Sandercock, 1998: 27).
   

Postmodernism

Postmodernism arose out of the peculiar confusion in the social science. This confusion has two distinct components: a concerted general attack on the legitimacy of social sciences and a renaissance in the specific realm of social theory (Dear, 1987: 368). The meanings of postmodernism are ambiguous since the meanings of modernism are frequently ambiguous.

Harper and Stein (1995) identify key themes of postmodernism which they believe are relevant to the planning domain –antifoundationalism, meaning and ambiguity, incommensurability, dualism of truth and reason, and plurality and difference. They argue that postmodernism is antifoundationalist in dispensing with universals as bases for truth and in rejecting claims of undisputed authority. Postmodernists make much of the ambiguity that follows from their antifoundationalism. They take ambiguity to mean the inability to fix a universal meaning to a concept.

Harper and Stein (1995) identify the danger of incommensurability in postmodernism arises not from acknowledging that there are competing goals or different views of justice and morality, but from relativizing these differences to particular communities without the possibility of their coming together. They assert that postmodernism rejects dualism and propose that pluralism should replace dualism. They posit that the way to deal with differences in postmodernism is not by presupposing incommensurable notions of rationality and truth, but by talking about them and attempting to reach consensus.

Innes (1997) identifies the post modern era that is characterized by fragmented power, distrust of government and experts, incommensurable discourse, and a new tribalism where groups celebrate their differences. Planning education must be able to enrich the body of knowledge in particular that of making connections among interests, public agencies, and profession and disciplines, between public and private sector and between government and the public. Innes (1997) posits that the planning educators need to develop new intellectual frameworks more suited to the post modern era. If we could do so, Innes (1997) believes that planning is better able to adapt to change than many other fields. The 21th century can be the century for the field of planning if the planning educator and practicing planner make it so.

Postmodernists Critique of Modernist Planning Practice

Rationality

The important premise of modernist planning is rationality. Planning seeks to bring order through reliance on rational decision making and emphasis on quantitative analysis, neutral expertise and the provision of answers for decision makers (Innes, 1995; Sandercock, 1998). When the rational planning model was seen as foundational, planning educator was primarily a matter of technical training. The focus of planning education was on the empirical and the quantitative coursework.

One reason for the growing influence of the postmodern approach to planning is the demise of the rational planning model. The foundation of scientific rationality has been undermined but nothing has taken its place (Harper and Stein, 1996). In the last two decades, using the premises of postmodernism, there were found some shortcomings of rational planning model, as follows:

• Wicked problem; rational decision making is based on a faulty epistemology. Social problems are never solved, they are merely displaced by other problems.
• The veil of time; how to deal with the future. Forecasting is difficult.
• Pitfall in modeling, data analysis, optimization methods.
• Attention and information are limited, and interests constrain feasible alternatives.
• Goals are fuzzy, and criteria for evaluating consequences conflict with one another
• Rationality omits a significant portion of the relevant universe of action and interaction, not account for pre-interactive decision making or deliberation.
• Rationality has virtues as a guide for collecting and analyzing information, but in analyzing problems will see situations abstractly, narrowly, and superficially and will likely to fail to understand what social conditions mean to the people who live them.
  

Comprehensiveness

Comprehensiveness in a plan in which modernism claims as the way to interpret reality and exclusive insights into proper values and behavior was criticized by postmodernism. The claims of comprehensiveness, integrated and coordinated actions of multi-sectoral and multi-functional violate the complexity and contingency of social reality, and impose exclusionary perspective on individuals who are culturally diverse (Beauregard, 1991 ; Sandercock, 1998). For postmodernism, there are only multiple narratives, a multiplicity of language games that are locally determined, none of which can be reconciled across speakers and all of which must be allowed their existence (Beauregard, 1991: 193).

Sandercock (1998) argues that planning is no longer exclusively concerned with comprehensive, integrated, and coordinated action, but more negotiated, political, and focused planning. This in turn makes in less document-oriented and more people centered (Sandercock, 1998: 30).

Ways of knowing

Modernist planning hold that the authority of planners derives in large measure form a mastery of theory and knowledge in the social science. Thus, planning knowledge and expertise are grounded in positive science, with its propensity for quantitative modeling and analysis (Sandercock, 1998: 27).

Postmodernist perceives knowledge as inherently unstable that we only know the world through the argument about it. Thus, the knowledge is not necessarily a reliable guide to effective action. Increased understanding can only reveal differences, not set direction. To this extent, the important thing is not causality –cause and effect relations- but meaning.

Postmodernism is concerned with symbolic representations of action and behavior. Its task is to uncover the transmitted pattern of meaning by which men communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life. (Beauregard, 1991). Language is a reflection of the attributes of a community. (Harper and Stein, 1996). Harper and Stein (1996) define community as “a social group whose members share common characteristics of heritage, beliefs, attitudes, hopes, history, culture, reflected in a common language” (p.418). Interpretation of what people do reflects their intentions, beliefs and hopes. Language cannot be separated from meaningful action.

Sandercock (1998) argues that local communities have experiental, grounded, contextual, intuitive knowledges, which are manifested through speech, songs, stories, and various visual forms rather than the more familiar kinds of planning sources such as census data, and simulation model. She suggests that planners have to learn to access these other ways of knowing

State directed vs. community-based

Modernist planning including rational planning, the incrementalist approach are classified as the social reform tradition (Friedmann, 1987). Planning is considered as a project of state directed futures. State is seen as reformist tendencies and as being separate from the economy. Planning in the social reform tradition acknowledges that there would be an inherent tendency to resist change that would give rise to conflict. However, modernist believes that these conflict situations are manageable and through rational decision making and that conflict creating situations can be eliminated or at least minimized and better managed. Modernist planning also believes that conflict can be avoided through appropriate intervention at the right time (Friedmann, 1987).

Postmodernist critique calls for community-based planning. It would replace modernist reliance on state-directed futures and top-down processes. From this perspective, citizens could dictate the agenda of the local government. Participation can lead to better public policy even if citizens bring their own narrow and selfish interest into politics. Through such selfish participation, the government is informed of these interests and pressured to respond. In this way, it produces public goods more closely attuned to citizen needs than it would if there were no participation (Verba, 1972). Verba identifies four modes of participation as alternative ways in which citizens can participate. They are voting and campaign activity which relate to electoral activity, and cooperative activity and citizen-initiated contacts which relate to non-electoral activity. The modes of participation are meaningfully different ways in which individual citizen tries to influence his government. They fit closely alternative systems of citizen-government interaction.
Public interest

The domain of planning in modernist paradigm operates in the public interest and planners seek to identify that interest within community. Planners attempt to present a public image of neutrality and planning policies based on positivist science. The notion of public interest comes from a frame of reference in liberal political theory in which disinterested experts objectively and rationally analyze a problem and arrive at a solution that is in the public interest. It assumed the ability of a certain chosen, well-educated group to stand outside social processes and decide what is best for everyone else (Sandercock, 1998: 197).

Sandercock (1998) argues that the construct of the public interest and community exclude difference. She suggests that we must acknowledge that there are multiple publics and that planning in this new multicultural arena requires a new kind of multicultural literacy (Sandercock, 1998: 30).

Urban Theories from the Developed World

Two urban theories, the Chicago School of Urban Sociology and the Los Angeles School of Urban Geography have dominated the discourse of urban development in developing countries, including in Indonesia. Both urban theories are based on phenomenon that occurred in urban cities in the United States. The Chicago School of Urban Sociology, which was developed in the early 1920s explain the development of the urban migration that is controlled by generating ecological patterns, such as invasion, survival, assimilated, adaptation and cooperation. The Los Angeles School of Urban Geography initiated in the late 1990s to explain the development of metropolitan Los Angeles in the postmodern era that emphasizes the importance of the capitalist economic and political globalization of the economy.

The dominance of both urban theories in the discourse of urban development influences the urban spatial planning in developing countries. Planning practices that replicate both urban theories through the dichotomy of developed and developing countries become ubiquitous. This becomes a problem when such a replication is no longer relevant with the unique urban phenomenon in developing countries, such as the informal sector.

Neither the Chicago School of Urban Sociology nor the Los Angeles School of Urban Geography can explain the unique urban phenomenon in developing countries, including the informal sector. Both urban theories are rooted from the developed world where the informal sectors or other unique urban phenomenon in developing countries are not commonly found. The local knowledge or local wisdom plays an important role in explaining the unique urban phenomenon in the developing worlds. The local knowledge or local wisdom can be an important factor in addressing any urban problems due to the unique urban phenomenon in the developing worlds.
The dominance of the Chicago and Los Angeles Schools in the practice of urban planning in Indonesia has contributed to the lack of spaces for the informal sectors in urban areas. The spaces in urban areas are dominated by the urban sectors that have high economic value and the spaces for the informal sectors are marginalized.

The application of local knowledge or local wisdom in understanding the phenomenon of street vendors will change our perspective on the existence of street vendors in urban areas. The street vendors are not the groups failed to enter the economic system in urban areas. They are one component of the urban economy that will benefit urban development. The application of local knowledge or local wisdom in the practice of urban planning will allocate more urban spaces for the street vendors and integrate it with the formal sectors.

Modifications to Urban Planning Practice

In light of postmodernist critique of the knowledge foundations of modernist planning practice and theory and the inappropriateness of the two urban theories rooted from the developed world in the developing countries, I would argue that some suggestion will likely enhance urban planning practice in the 21st century in the developing countries, particularly in Indonesia that characterized by fragmented power, distrust of government and experts, and incommensurable discourse, as follows:

• Planning needs greater and more explicit reliance on local wisdom rather than means-end rationality.
• Planning needs to move form top-down processes to community-based planning, geared to community empowerment.
• Planning needs to deconstruct the public interest and community and acknowledge there are multiple publics and thus planning requires a new kind of multicultural literacy.
• Planning needs to embrace plurality and difference. The post-modern critique calls for planner to abandon the belief that there is absolute truth or a unitary public interest.
  

References:

1. Altchuler, Alan. (1965). The goals of comprehensive planning. The City Planning
   Process: 299-332.
2. Beauregard, Robert A. (1989). Between modernity and
   postmodernity: the ambiguous position of U.S. planning. In Readings in Planning
   Theory. Scott Campbell and Susan S. Fainstein (Eds.). Malden: Blackwell
   Publishing.
3. Beauregard, Robert A. (1991). Without a net: Modernist planning
   and the postmodern abyss. Journal of Planning Education and Research 10(3):
   189-194.
4. Blower, A. (1986). Town Planning: Paradoxes and Prospects. The
   Planner.
5. Dalton, L.C. (2001). Weaving the fabric of planning as education.
   Journal of Planning Education and Research 20(4): 423-436.
6. Dalton, Linda C. (1986). Why the rational paradigm persists: the resistance of professional
   education and practice to alternative forms of planning. Journal of Planning
   Education and Research 5: 147-153.
7. Dear, Michael J. (1986). Postmodernism and planning. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 4: 367-384.
8. Friedmann, John. (1987). Planning in the Public Domain: From Knowledge to
   Action. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
9. Harper, T.L., and Stein, S.M. (1995). Out of the postmodern abyss: Preserving the rationale for liberal planning. Journal of Planning Education and Research 14(4): 233-244.
10. Harper, T.L., and Stein, S.M. (1996). Postmodernist planning theory: The
    incommensurability premise. In Explorations in Planning Theory. Seymour J.
    Mandelbaum, Luigi Mazza, and Robert W. Burchell (Eds.). Rutgers: Center for
    Urban Policy Research.
11. Healey, Patsy. (1997). Collaborative Planning: Shaping Places in Fragmented Society. UBC Press
12. Innes, J. (1997). The planners’ century. Journal of Planning Education and Research 16(3): 227-228
13. Roy, Ananya. (2005). Urban Informality: Toward an Epistemology of Planning.
    Journal of the American Planning Association 71(2): 147-158
14. Sandercock, Leonie. (1998). Towards Cosmopolis: Planning for Multicultural Cities. London: John Wiley and Sons.
15. Verba, Sydney, and Norman Nie. 1972. Participation in America: Political Democracy and Social Equity. New York: Harper and Row

lanes upon lanes, originally uploaded by Ian Riley.

Jakarta Traffic, originally uploaded by J_K_H.

Jakarta - City Traffic, originally uploaded by sungimann.

1. Cervero, R., Kang, J., and Shively, K. (2009). From elevated freeways to surface boulevards: neighborhood and housing price impacts in San Francisco. Journal of Urbanism 2(1): 31-50
2. James, C. and Norquist, J. (2010). Tearing down an expressway to restore a community. http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2010/08/tearing_down_an_expressway_to.html

Metrominis used the busway lane in Jalan Urip Sumohardjo, Jatinegara, Jakarta

The acute traffic congestion in Jakarta has also prompted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to revisit the idea of capital relocation out of Jakarta. Relocating the capital out of Jakarta could reduce urbanization and the rate of car ownership in Jakarta and its surrounding areas, but it will not completely address the traffic congestion in Jakarta. Jakarta needs a fundamental change in the management of public transportation. The current public transportations have not been able to alleviate the acute traffic congestion in Jakarta. Jakarta now needs the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) or also popularly known as Metro to address its transportation problem.

Most metropolitan areas in the world with the population of over 10 millions have operated metros for years. New York City opened the first underground line of the subway in 1904 and the subway has been the backbone of New York City transportation system since then. Two major cities in Japan, Tokyo and Osaka built their metros in 1927 and 1933 respectively. The Tokyo Metro is the world’s most extensive rapid transit system with more than eight million passengers daily. The second largest city in the world, Mexico City, has built a metro since 1969 and now the Mexico City Metro is the second largest metro system in North America after the New York City subway. Two major cities in China, Beijing and Shanghai opened their metro systems in 1971 and 1995 respectively. Major cities in Southeast Asia which have fewer population than Jakarta have also had their metro systems for years, including Manila (1984), Singapore (1987), Kuala Lumpur (1995) and Bangkok (2004) (Wikipedia, 19 October 2010).

The MRT would become the most expensive public projects in Jakarta’s history, but it is the answer to avoid the total traffic gridlock in Jakarta. For at least 20 years, the proposal of MRT in Jakarta has been discussed by the Jakarta city administration and the government of Indonesia. The activists and non-governmental watchdogs have seen the MRT proposal as a possible bonanza for corrupt politicians and contractors (Economist, 4 February 2010).

Acute traffic jams in Jakarta

Metro in Montreal

Many policies have been offered by the central government and the Jakarta city administration to disentangle the Jakarta chronic traffic congestions. Vice President Boediono, after the meeting with several ministers and the Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo on September 2, 2010, offered 17 policies to alleviate the Jakarta worsening congestion. Those policies include (1) the application of electronic road pricing (ERP), (2) the sterilization of Transjakarta lanes, (3) the improvement of on-street parking management, (4) multiyear contract for road maintenance, (5)the addition of two more Transjakarta routes by the end of 2010, (6) subsidies for natural gas usage by public transportation modes, (7) incentives for converting old minivans into new buses, (8) reactivation of commuter train routes in Jabodetabek, (9) punishment for illegal public transportations, (10)MRT, monorail and railroad access to the airport should be prioritized, (11) the creation of Transportation Authority of Jabodetabek, (12) the revision of the Integrated Transportation Master Plan of Jabodetabek, (13) the hastening of double tract project in Jakarta’s suburb areas, (14) development of the Jakarta inner-ring railroad, (15) the development of six new inner city toll road, (16) limitation of vehicles on the road, and (17) the provision of parking lots around Transjakarta stations and commuter train stations (The website of the Indonesian Vice President Office, September 2010). At the meeting, Vice President Boediono appointed the head of the Presidential Work Unit for Development Monitoring and Control (UKP4), Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, to head the team addressing the Jakarta’s transportation problems (The Jakarta Post, September 3, 2010).

In addition to the long list of policies from Vice President Boediono, the Jakarta city administration added some more policies to alleviate the traffic congestion in Jakarta including changing traffic regulations in some areas (The Jakarta Post, September 24, 2010), staggering office hours according to municipality (The Jakarta Post, November 3, 2010), and forming a task force to be deployed to traffic congestion hot spots (The Jakarta Post, November 6, 2010).

The development and expansion of mass transportations including MRT, monorail, Transjakarta, train to the airport and commuter trains in inner-city and suburbs of Jakarta, as recommended by Vice President Boediono, are the fundamental key to disentangle traffic congestions in Jakarta. Such developments should be prioritized and expedited. The traffic congestion management including the application of ERP, the traffic law enforcement and the deployment of task forces to traffic congestion hot spots will also support the effectiveness of mass transportation in alleviating the transportation problems in Jakarta.

The Jakarta Transportation Agency has planned to apply the ERP in major thoroughfares which currently use the three-in-one system (The Jakarta Post, September 23, 2010). The ERP is used to impose automatically a demand sensitive congestion toll when the congestion level in the restricted zone exceeds a preferred threshold level. Only drivers with the high value of their trips will pay the charge. As a result efficient use of the road and redistribution of trips spatially, temporarily and modally will occur (Albalate and Bel 2009; Goh 2002).

Jakarta needs to learn from the success of Singapore that has implemented the ERP since April 1998. The ERP in Singapore is the upgrade system of the previous congestion measure, Area Licensing Scheme (ALS) that was introduced in 1975. The implementation of ALS reduced the traffic by 45 percent during the morning peak and another 15 percent after the introduction of the ERP. One of the contributing factors to the success of the ERP implementation is the strong commitment of the Singaporean authorities to develop and expand public mass transportation alternatives (Albalate and Bel 2009). Other cities including London and Stockholm that have successfully implemented traffic congestion charging measures also have reliable, accessible and affordable public transportation alternatives.

Among the policies proposed by Vice President Boediono and the Jakarta city administration, I found two policies that could be counterproductive to the development and expansion of mass transportation system: the development of six new inner-city toll roads and the staggering office hours. Both policies could ease the traffic congestions in the short run, but could cause more traffic congestions in the long run. The policies will not encourage drivers to convert from their vehicles to mass transportation as their primary transportation modes. They will only undermine the efforts of developing the mass transportation system in Jakarta.

Alternatively, many possible policies could be implemented in Jakarta in order to alleviate the traffic congestion including shuttle services, carpool matching services, telecommuting and downzoning. Instead of staggering office hours, the Jakarta city administration should encourage private and public companies to expand their shuttle services and develop carpool matching services for their employees.

Telecommuting is a way to reduce commuting by using telecommunications technologies. Employees can work outside the traditional office at remote work locations including their homes. A study in the US shows that telecommuting can reduce commuting for about 10.4 percent of the labor force (Cullingworth and Caves 2009). Downzoning is a measure to reduce allowable development on land zoned for service, retail or commercial development. Such a measure is mostly directed to areas along busy streets to reduce traffic congestions.

In order to support the development and expansion of mass transportation system, Jakarta also needs to develop more multimodal transportation districts. Such districts provide a mix of land uses, an interconnected network of streets designed to encourage walking and bicycling, and appropriate densities and intensities of land uses within walking distance of transit stops (Cullingworth and Caves 2009).

Jakarta is estimated to lose $3 billion a year because of traffic congestions. Concerted steps are needed to reduce the Jakarta’s traffic woes. These steps must be implemented with a strong commitment to develop and expand an integrated, reliable, accessible and affordable mass transportation system in Jakarta.

(This article also appeared at The Jakarta Post on November 13, 2010)


References:

1. Albalate, Daniel and Bel, Gelma. (2009). What local policy makers should know about urban road charging: Lessons from worldwide experience. Public Administration Review 69(5): 962-975.
2. Cullingworth, Barry and Caves, Roger W. (2009). Planning in the USA: Policies, Issues and Processes. London and New York: Routledge.
3. Goh, Mark. (2002). Congestion management and electronic road pricing in Singapore. Journal of Transport Geography 10: 29-38.
   

The gap between planning theory and practice has been identified for years (Alexander 1997; Brooks 2002; Sanyal 2002). Planning practice and planning theory have two distinctive communities of interest (Brook 2002). None of planning practitioners who participated in the survey conducted by MIT found planning theory useful when they grappled with conflicting interests (Rodwin and Sanyal 2000). Friedmann (2003) asserted that most planners go through their education without a clear understanding of planning theory.

The language of planning theory is abstract, esoteric and highly technical for most planning practitioners (Brook 2002). Most ideas of planning theory have not engaged planning practitioners constructively and planning theorists communicated their ideas to others who share their interests (Brooks 2002). It’s clear that we should bridge the theory and practice gap. Bridging the theory and practice gap is important because planning theory is fundamental to the planning profession. Planning practitioners need to understand the epistemological underpinnings of their actions. There is no planning practice without a theory about how planning ought to be practiced (Friedmann 2003).

In a more recent article, Friedmann (2008) identified three major ways of how planning theory can contribute to the advancement of planning practices. First, philosophical way that evolves humanist philosophy for planning and traces its implications for planning practice. Second, adaptation way that helps adapt planning practices to the real constraints including scale, complexity and time. Third, translation way that translates knowledge and ideas from other fields into the domain of planning.

There are four types of planning theory based on the basis of their intent (see Alexander 2003; Brook 2002 and Friedmann 2003). First, theories about planning that focus on its role in a particular milieu, i.e. community, nation or society and are based on empirical study or experience of practice. Second, theories for planning that propose models or strategies for planning practitioners to consider or use. Third, theories in planning that focus on the subject or objects of the planning undertaking. This type of theory is used in planning practices and is specific to its several specializations, i.e. community development, land use, transportation, environmental planning, etc. Fourth, theories of planning that address what is common to all planning specializations and explicate characteristics of planning practice.

Theories of planning are said to be irrelevant to planning practice (Friedmann 2003; 2008). Furthermore, Alexander (2003) argued that diversity of practices in planning and different types of planners in different contexts complicate the relevance of theories of planning for planning practice. The gap between planning practice and planning theory occurs specifically between planning practice and theories of planning.

Most planning theories were developed and extended within the context of Western liberal democracies. What is the relevance or the applicability of those planning theories to planning practice in different contexts is one of the most interesting theoretical and practical conundrums in planning. What about the gap between planning theory and planning practice in Indonesia? There has not been any study to investigate the gap between planning theory and practice in Indonesia, but I can assure that there is gap between planning theory and practice in Indonesia. Planning theory is also taught to students in the planning schools in Indonesia but I’m not sure the relevance of planning theory for planning practitioners in Indonesia.

This post attempts to bridge the gap between planning theories and practice in Indonesia. Needless to say, this is a daunting task. This is just the beginning of a long journey of bridging planning theories and planning practice in Indonesia.

I identify at least four articles about planning theory derived from planning practice in Indonesia. Beard (2002) developed covert planning for social transformation that was drawn from a longitudinal study of informal settlements along the Code River, Yogyakarta. A case study of a local youth group that planned and maintained library in the informal settlements along the Code River was used to illustrate the concept of covert planning that was defined as a “covert, incipient and incremental form of planning” (Beard 2002).

Drawing on the same study of informal settlement along the Code River, Yogyakarta, Beard (2003) extended radical planning in restrictive political environments. She used three local-level planning cases including the development of a health care clinic, the pavement project and the library project by residents in the informal settlements along the Code River to explain how the foundation for radical planning evolved in authoritarian contexts.

Hudalah et al (2010) explored ideas about communicative planning and capacity building in collective action. They combined political opportunity structure and Kingdon’s policy window and developed an agency-centered approach to opportunity. The extended ideas about communicative planning and capacity building were applied to two debates on development planning projects in the periurban area of North Bandung Area, Indonesia.

Hudalah et al (2011) extended the potential of policy networking as capacity building. They explained how a planning policy network is constructed and how it can improve the governance that faces spatial, social and institutional fragmentations. The debate on the road development proposal in North Bandung Area, Indonesia was used to illustrate their extended policy network as capacity building.

In addition to the articles about planning theories derived from planning practices in Indonesia, I will present ideas from Bambang S. Priyohadi (BSP), an Indonesian planner who has more than 30 years of planning experiences in the Department of Public Works and in the Province of Yogyakarta. BSP theorized his planning experiences in a thread of discussion in the Referensi list-serve. BSP argued that planning is a model of communication. Planning and policy executor are on the same side and expected to serve community and the nature on the other side.

BSP characterized planning in four ways including planning is an endless communication, planning is selling ideas, planning is constructing hopes and planning is sharing believes.

Planning is an endless communication. BSP argued that planning is a process that will still continue even when the plan is completed. Planning has not started when “the planning law or ordinances has been passed” or “the plan has been completed”. Planning will only end when the civilization is over. The discrepancies between the planned and the real conditions will likely occur and they are unpredictable. Using the unconditional cash transfer program (BLT), the disaster donation in Bantul and the development of agricultural areas in Samas-Pandansimo, BSP indicated unpredictable outcomes that were not identified in the plans. In the case of BLT, the outcomes are the panders (calo) who get personal advantages from the cash transfer coupons. One of unpredictable outcomes of the disaster donation in Bantul is the increase of motorcycle sales. The unexpected outcome of the success of development in Samas-Pandansimo is the increase of prostitute from about 60 to more than 500 in 3 years.

Planning is selling ideas. The presentation techniques have been learned by the planning practitioners from planning schools, but the planning practitioners also need to sell their ideas effectively. Selling an idea is not always about the excellent presentation technique but more importantly also about the right attitude and thought. BSP identified several factors to be considered in selling ideas effectively including customer language, understanding of the customer needs, communication techniques, communication intensity, and message clarity.

Planning is constructing hopes. Planners often consider their plans as the best representation of the community’s expectations. In fact, the plans are mostly created within the context of different sense of priority and the background of the planners. Planners are expected to meet the expectations or the hopes of the community.

Planning is sharing beliefs. Building trust is the important prerequisite in the planning process that is often neglected by the planners. Using his experience when working with residents of Ngawen in Gunung Kidul Regency, BSP was able to develop an effective mutual relationship with them and produce the expected results through sharing a very strong belief with them.

References:

1. Alexander, E.R. (1997). A mile of a millimeter: measuring the planning theory-practice gap. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 24(1): 3-6
2. Alexander, E.R. (2003). Response to ‘Why do planning theory?’ Planning Theory 2(3): 179-182
3. Beard, V.A. (2002). Covert planning for social transformation in Indonesia. Journal of Planning Education and Research 22(1): 15-25
4. Beard, V.A. (2003). Learning radical planning: the power of collective action. Planning Theory 2(1): 13-35
5. Brooks, M. (2002). Planning Theory for Practitioners. Chicago: APA Press.
6. Friedmann, J. (2003). Why do planning theory? Planning Theory 2(1): 7-10
7. Friedmann, J. (2008). The uses of planning theory: a bibliographic essay. Journal of Planning Education and Research 28: 247-257
8. Hudalah, D., Winarso, H., and Woltjer, J. (2010). Planning by opportunity: an analysis of periurban environmental conflict in Indonesia. Environment and Planning A 42(9): 2254-2269
9. Hudalah, D., Winarso, H., and Woltjer, J. (2011 forthcoming). Policy networking as capacity building: an analysis of regional road development conflict in Indonesia. Planning Theory
10. Rodwin, L. and Sanyal, B. (eds.). (2000). The Profession of City Planning. Rutgers, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research
11. Sanyal, B. (2002). Globalization, ethical compromise and planning theory. Planning Theory 1(2): 116-123

INDONESIA/, originally uploaded by jtcemmadna.

Jakarta's skyline , originally uploaded by Deden Rukmana.

Two children chased each other cheerfully, splashing about in polluted water flowing through a small alley in Muara Angke, Pluit, in North Jakarta, while their mother watched television in their home nearby. Their mother, Carini, in an effort to stop water from flooding their home, had deployed a few sacks of charcoal as a barrier. After all, she made no bones about the floodwaters that regularly inundate her home. She and her family members had already made peace with the floods, she told The Jakarta Post.

“We even use floodwater to wash our clothes if the water looks clean,” she said. Carini knows by heart what time the water will start rising.

“Every day the water rises at 8 a.m. until around 10 or 11 p.m,” she said, adding that the water could at times be ankle-high.

Before she decided to elevate her home’s floor last year, floodwaters had been as much as 1 meter high. Carini has been living in the fishing village of Muara Angke for the past 12 years, and insists she will remain there in spite of the perennial inundation. Her home is where their livelihood is as her husband is a fisherman who sets sail from the seaside village.

Muara Angke is one of 27 sites in North Jakarta that are prone to tidal flooding, including Penjaringan, Kapuk Muara, Tanjung Priok and Ancol. The frequent flooding occurs because the elevation of the fishing village is slightly lower than sea level. Compounding the problem is the mounds of garbage that block the passage of water in nearby streams. Sumri, a food vendor at the nearby Muara Angke traditional market, said the aqueduct that channels tidewater was clogged with garbage.

“[The flooding] has never subsided. The best we can hope for is ankle-high flooding,” she said. Sumri said although she and her family were used to the flooding, it could be very disruptive at times, especially during bathing hours.

“My toilet is in the back of the house, so I have to pass the water every time I go there,” she said.

Subandi, Sumri’s brother-in-law who also lives in the home together with his wife and son, said the toilet was 30 meters away.

“To avoid any skin problems we always wash our feet after returning from the toilet,” he said.

Sumri said living so close to water also forced them to spend more on water. She buys clean water once every two days. “We need it for drinking and cooking.”

Despite the persistent garbage, the authorities have done little. “I can’t remember the last time the aqueduct was cleaned. The last time it was cleaned was when the head of the neighborhood initiated a cleanup,” Subandi said.

“I don’t think the subdistrict administration wants to do a cleaning job,” he said, laughing.

The lack of initiative from the local government has prompted residents to deal with the flooding on their own. On Jl. Cumi, an alley next to the Pluit Port that is regularly flooded, residents built an embankment from debris they collected to stop tidal water from flowing into their neighborhood.

Jakarta's Traffic This Morning, originally uploaded by Chandra Marsono.

Many metropolitans in the world have developed dedicated bicycles lanes for years. Cities in developed countries, particularly in Europe, have integrated bicycle lanes into their transportation network systems. Those cities such as Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen and Barcelona have been developed as bike-friendly cities. Safe and extensive bike route networks, promotion of pro-cyclist policies, and a bike culture have taken places in those cities. Cyclists in those cities are not second class residents and can safely ride their bicycles as the main mode for their daily commute to their workplaces. Copenhagen is an example of European bike-friendly city where about a third of workforce in this city commute to the office by bike.

The inauguration of the first Jakarta’s dedicated bike lane stretching from Ayodia Park to Blok M should also be considered as a breakthrough in solutions for acute traffic congestions in Jakarta. The development of dedicated bicycle lanes is a good move from the Jakarta administration for promoting the use of bicycle as an alternative transportation mode. If the Jakarta city administration could encourage more motorists to shift to using bicycle to work, the city’s chronic traffic woes could be eventually reduced.

Bike Lane and Traffic Lights, originally uploaded by Mikael Colville-Andersen. Some Copenhageners on their way home in the afternoon, along the busiest boulevard in the capital, Hans Christian Andersen's Boulevard. Over 20,000 bikes a day on this stretch and this intersection is among the busiest in the kingdom. Notice the abundance of traffic lights, for extra safety. Cyclists here have three lights to look at. Helpful if you're stuck at the back of a queue of 50-75 bikes. You'll always be able to see one.

Velib' bikes, Paris, originally uploaded by the noggin_nogged.