Cyclists crossing a zebra crossing at a city junction, seen from above

Lead story

A year of Sembada’s bike lanes: busier, not yet safe

The number of cyclists on the city-centre corridor has tripled. But half the lanes still stop short at the junctions, and that is exactly where the crashes happen.

By Rani Kusuma and Arif Setiawan, 9 min read

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Lead story 4 min left

City

A year of Sembada’s bike lanes: busier, not yet safe

By Rani Kusuma and Arif Setiawan. Published Thursday, 5 November 2026, 07:00 WIB.

At six in the morning on the Jalan Merdeka corridor, cyclists are already lined up at the red light. A year ago this was almost unthinkable. Now automatic counters at three points log an average of 4,200 cyclists a day, up from 1,300 before the lanes opened.

But that number hides a problem. Of the 18 kilometres of lanes promised, only 11 are connected. The rest end just before the big junctions, forcing cyclists into car traffic at the most dangerous point.

A cyclist riding next to a car on a city street — Cyclists share the road with cars where an unconnected lane ends. Illustrative photo.

Crash data from the city transport office shows that 23 of the 31 crashes involving bicycles this year happened within 50 metres of where a lane breaks off. “The lane is great, until it suddenly disappears,” says a courier who rides through every day.

“The lane is great, until it suddenly disappears. That’s where we have to guess which car is about to turn.”

The city government says the connections are delayed because three junctions need their traffic lights re-timed. The target is to finish before next year’s rainy season, with the budget already in the work plan.

Meanwhile, the cycling community has made its own map: red dots for where lanes end, yellow dots for junctions considered safe to cross. City-centre schools now use it to plan routes for children who cycle.

This article is sample content for a theme demo. Sembada is a fictional city.