Dear Lorina, you took part in our Practitioners' Workshop as the Representative of the City of Bogor. Bogor is located 60 km eastern of Jakarta and has over 1 million inhabitants.
The event addressed the issue of sustainable urban mobility. What is your biggest mobility challenge and how are you trying to face it?

In Bogor the biggest mobility challenge is how to reduce traffic congestion in order to serve people better with regards to transportation services and in order to contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions. We have a plan for sustainable transportation system created 5 years ago but we struggle to implement that plan mainly because of social and financial issues.

Could you briefly mention a success story on sustainable urban mobility in your city and the 2 key factors that made it succeed?

In 2007 we set up and started running the city BRT system. Before that, ankors (the Indonesian version of jeepneys) were the only public transportation option. We wanted to shift people from private cars to public transportation as the use of motorcycles and private cars contributed enormously to the city traffic congestion. One of the key factors for the success of the introduction of the BRT system is the political will to become more sustainable in mobility. Government is in fact subsidiasing the BRT system.

Which good practice at the event so far inspired you more and why?

The good practice from the city of Leipzig because they want to reduce the use of private cars and encourage people to use public transport providing a service characterized by amenity and comfort as well as reliability. They set up a long-term vision and implemented a medium-term plan to serve the people with non-motorised transport. Furthermore the city itself was very strong in engaging its citizens and representatives of local interests to better understand how to implement the transport system in a way that would work for its people.

Do you see the possibility for replication of one of these good practices in your city? What are the challenges in this?

We are inspired to replicate the long vision of the Leipzig leadership in Bogor as well. The centre of power is in the hands of the leaders both at the local and national levels.

How do you see such a networking event contributing to your daily job?

I had the chance to receive more information that allows me to serve my citizens better, to create connections with other cities and to understand the mistakes that other cities went through and not to replicate them.