Love Letters

Zebra Cross


Adam Levine by Jack Bronstein
So okay, as Adam Levine once famously tweeted on the day he recently arrived for his concert"Traffic in Jakarta is the worst! Right?", this city can't stop to amuse me in the most wondrous sense in road traffic. In the lasting words of my wonderful cousin when she came to visit us from Maryland -which is also her name by the way-: "Only in Indo.", the traffic in Jakarta -I'm afraid- really is the worst.

This morning, as I made my way through this fiasco of road traffic management, I witnessed something quite extraordinary to share to those who dare to dream for a better humane experience in Jakarta's streets. Firstly, -and commonly usual of course- the jam was quite heavy at some spots: Fatmawati, Sudirman, Semanggi, well ya the usuals. But what got me earlier was how even a policeman on his motorcycle has disregarded the safety of pedestrians by running through a red light on a zebra cross on Medan Merdeka Selatan. I mean come on, from the looks of it (the siren wasn't on), there wasn't any need for such hurry that can put lives of zebra-crossing pedestrians in danger. It's simply cannot be permissible.


Zebra cross in Tokyo
Secondly, -in a milder instance involving a zebra cross and a policeman- the taxi I was in was stopped by a policeman apparently giving way in helping two fairly attractive women cross the street at Medan Merdeka Timur, from Istiqlal to Kantor Pusat Pertamina. A kind gesture from the policeman, it seems. Who would complain, right? But as it turns out, me! I wouldn't even have the slightest objection, clearly, if I hadn't known a zebra cross was just passed by. I could still see the dark and light stripes looking back! Why didn't the ladies just cross the street there? Why did they choose to cross just twenty meters away from the zebra cross? Shouldn't the policeman tell them to cross where they should? The zebra cross? Oh, why?

The zebra cross was invented to give pedestrians extra 'rights of way' in road traffic terms, in other words: priority. Pedestrians are to be given priority every time they zebra-cross. But it seems now, for the longest time I can remember, zebra crosses have lost their meaning. It doesn't matter any more. So sadly, I'm sorry, it doesn't. Hiks...

There is an international treaty on road traffic "to increase road safety by standardizing the uniform traffic rules" and even though I haven't got a copy of and read it, I am very positive there's a section in the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic that mentions about zebra cross. Indonesia, as one of the participant signing nation of that convention should ratify and really put it into practice. Its capital city (people, rather) is in desperate need of some evident road traffic order. God save Jakarta.

Comments