Faculty of Social and Political Science held seminar to support youth movement on promoting traffic ethics for motorbikes

To help promote traffic ethics for motorbikes among youth, Faculty of Social and Political Science (FISIP) together with Community of German Alumni Yogyakarta and MARKA JALAN community have held a seminar that highlighted the theme “ Motorbike Traffic Ethics, developing good traffic manner” in KSI Conference Room on Wednesday, (19/3/2014).  This seminar was open for public, students, lecturer and social observers.  Also present, were UGM transportation researcher, Ir. Tri Ardianto, Samiyo (Department of Education Yogyakarta), Ranggabumi (lecturer in FISIP UAJY) and Lukas Ispandriarno as the moderator. He is a founder of MARKA JALAN and a lecturer in UAJY

According to Lukas Ispandriarno, this seminar aimed to encourage public to promote traffic ethics to youth.   Living in Yogyakarta, the city of education and culture, people ought to have good traffic ethics. The traffic in Yogyakarta is very similar to that in other cities in Indonesia, crowded and full of motorbikes with non-standard muffler.  Without serious attention, particularly from the government, Yogyakarta would be ‘the noisiest’ city as the number of motorbikes keep on increasing. Therefore, educators play an important role in encouraging the youth to adopt good traffic ethics. “When Marka Jalan was visiting a high school, the board told us that the numbers of students who drive motorbikes to school keep on increasing but there are not enough parking spaces. It is also our wish to encourage the young to respect the Traffic Regulations.” said Ispandriarno.

The victims of this problem are people who no longer feel safe or comfortable on the road.  They are pedestrian, handicapped, elderly people, children and drivers. This problem should have been dealt by local government leaders and institutions. Government officials are demanded to consider the availability of public transportation for residents in decades to come. Particularly during the campaign season, candidates must be able to control their campaign masses to behave politely on the highway. To gain sympathy, politic parties must prove that they are politicians that offer a sense of security to its people.

From his research, Ir. Tri Adianto explained that there are three advantages of reducing driving speed; it is an important factor in driving safety, it reduces the risk of accident, and reduces the severity of injuries in an accident. Besides reducing speed, there is strategy traffic calming or speed management such as using speed limitation signs, putting the median/divider in the middle or beside the road to reduce speed.

Whereas according to Samiyo, we should immediately include traffic ethics education into the school curriculum (starting from elementary school). The materials include: a) honesty, b) humility, c) order / discipline, d) morality, e) courtesy / politeness, f) patience, g) cooperation, h) tolerance, i) responsibility, j) justice, k) awareness, and l) toughness. (awan 19/3/2014)