Every second Saturday of the month, Johor Bahru's municipal council organizes a car free day. While the international event is held to encourage motorists to give up their cars for a day, MBJB's efforts are seen to promote healthy living. Besides, encouraging motorists and commuterists alike to travel to the city on a car free day gives them an idea of the local city, in an environment with fewer cars. Given the time, a paradigm shift to a lower dependency on cars may just be possible!
Encouraging as it is, Johor Bahru's car free route was extended to a 4 km route today. Incorporating the new 1 km bike lane at Jalan Wong Ah Fook, it drew many curious cyclists to the city.
The official event started with the Bangsa Johor song, followed by Negaraku. Then, a short morning stretching exercise commenced before before riders were finally flagged off by MBJB's Tuan Haji Farizal Ismail.
Everyone were encouraged to make full use of the car free route. A Zumba event was running concurrently on the otherwise busy Jalan Dato Onn. Avid runners took the opportune to run in a city otherwise flooded with vehicles. While previous events sees many skateboarders and motorized scooters, their absence were strangely missed today!
Today's car free route took riders through Jalan Ibrahim before turning left to Jalan Wong Ah Fook. While both these roads are usually choked with traffic, today's vehicle count was visibly reduced.
Riders rode alongside traffic on Jalan Wong Ah Fook, this time on a dedicated bike lane. In fact, the missing metal gratings from last Thursday's night ride has been replaced and the road was still going through the final touch ups. Kudos to the improvement efforts being made!
Riding past Persada, on Jalan Trus and Jalan Abdullah Ibrahim, traffic starts to build up. This is unavoidable as many cars were already parked on the city parking lots since the previous nights. Motorists were moving their parked vehicles! The city was waking up and the day has just begun!!
The route became peaceful again on Jalan Ayer Molek. This time, Car Free Day assumes its rightful identity. But before long, we had arrived back at MBJB's base where we had started, feeling cheated and wanting more!
It would have been more interesting if the car free route had not concentrated so much on distance. Taking riders up on the steep climb to glimpse the State Secretariat Building on Jalan Bukit Timbalan would have been the cherry on the cake. A glimpse of the old world charms of Jalan Tan Hiok Nee and Jalan Dhoby where old trades used to thrive, would have been a walk down memory lane. Until, the next Car Free Day, we hope to see more improvements for the riding community!
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| Bike lane getting the thumbs up |
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| Bike lane foster love.... |
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| .....peace..... |
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| .....stronger family ties.... |
Photo Credits :
Daniel Wng
Wong CK
YL
Andy
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Bike lane and car free day encourages city folks to get out and about, explore the city in an environment with lesser cars. It moves the economy while reducing carbon footprints.
On today's car free day, we explored Onn's Kitchen at Kg Tarom .... a quaint warong, built around a shady tree and oddly situated at the fork of the road. It serves authentic nasi lemak bungkus, roti pratas, lontong, soto and a uniquely must try lontong kering served with beef rendang.
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| Cosy settings |
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| Shady tree |
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| Self-service |
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| Lamps |
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| Eggs cooked for hours in spices |
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| No dogs .... bikes allowed??? |
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| Fork of the road |
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