Impact of Car-Free Day on air pollution and its multifarious advantages in Sudirman-Thamrin Street, Jakarta

Abstract

Jakarta is one of the most polluted cities in the world. The Jakarta Government led the Car-Free Day (CFD) with aims to reduce the pollution and uses of public transportation. Based on the high participation of citizen, CFD can be a potential initiative to engage in car-free life and become a solution to reduce pollution. The evaluation of CFD impact will be done by knowing the effect through environment and participant. To know the impact on the environment, we focus on the air condition. The data from The Environmental Agency of Jakarta was used and the manual measurement that contains PM10, SO2, CO, O3, and NO2 level was performed. The deeper understanding of the problem gets by observing the CFD Sudirman-Thamrin and doing an in-depth interview with participants. Analysis pattern of participant behavior will help to know how to change their perception about CFD without side effect such as a decreasing amount of participant. Understanding three main issues of CFD can be lead into improvement at planning and policy implementation, there are an environmental effect, transportation choices, and the multifarious effect such as CFD as the recreational area and the profitable area in the sight of participants. The result shows that CFD is not optimal in terms of the environment effect, but it is very good to maintain the program because it can be as a good health campaign tools, familiarize a healthy lifestyle and as a public space. However, the implementation must be improved from spatial planning and waste management.