Reader Response Draft 3

Khanna (2015) on “Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to ‘seize the urban moment’” states  that multiple South-east Asian cities have been metropolitanized. To adapt to rapid urbanization, South-east Asian governments have exploited technological applications to work with citizens on real time issues. They also use those to ease resource and infrastructural constraints. Furthermore, to increase potential economic growth, the governments’ focuses are on investing in technological infrastructure and the ideal of a green city. The boost in urban productivity establishes their advancement in becoming the "model of urban development in the 21st century." While the technological applications increase the spread of information and help ease on the infrastructure constraints, they are underutilized and impose little value to the public.

Khanna expresses his hopefulness in the use of technological applications such as QLUE (crowd-sourcing mobile app) which reports on immediate local issues such as traffic and flood issues to the Indonesian government. Another example includes Beeline from Singapore (personalized bus service) that allows the passengers to plan private bus routes for buses and create the optimal route for the users. While these technological applications increase the spread of information and help ease the infrastructure constraints, they impose little value to the public in these countries.

Firstly, "innovative" applications like Beeline have limited potential in Singapore because it has a very efficient public bus transportation system that covers all parts of the city. According to the Ministry of Transport (2015), the frequency of the buses and trains are increasing steadily and there are more routes added for the buses and trains to cater to the increasing population. Not only that, based on the TomTom (2015) traffic congestion statistic, the roads are heavily congested at the central area that connects to other parts of Singapore. Using the beeline official website, the routes that beeline has provided are mainly focus on traveling from north-east area to the central area during peak hours. Hence, the Beeline service impose little help to ease on the congestion during peak hours.

Furthermore, Khanna talks about proactive urban governance in Jakarta with the use of technological application like QLUE. This has been effective only to a limited extent due to the existing infrastructural problems. According to the Safe city index 2015 white paper (2015), Jakarta is ranked number 1 with the worst traffic in the world. Theresia (2013) point out about how Jakarta bad traffic is mainly due to the poorly maintained roads and surge in car numbers because of its affordability. Despite being one of the world’s most congested cities, it does not have a proper mass rapid transport system (MRT). As such, this application (QLUE) could only be used as a tool for observation and does not alleviate the underlying problems.

Otto (2014) raise his concern about the plan of MRT construction project. He mentioned that Jakarta has been swamped by a host of problems like land requisition issues that involve clearing other infrastructures, and hence it has been delayed numerous time. According to Adonai (2015) with regards to devastating floods, Jakarta is affected badly from the monsoon peak. They have render many roads useless and many power grids in affected areas were shut down for safety precautions. However, QLUE merely reports incidents back to the Indonesian government but does not ensure that any existing infrastructural issues are dealt with. Overall, the government needs to 'proactively' create new policies to deal with the traffic and existing infrastructures that can subside the flood and ease traffic to a manageable level. Until then, the use of technological applications like QLUE will prove limited use to the citizen.

In conclusion, Khanna’s optimism about the technological application falls short and it is far from reality. Technological applications can only be a limited tool when the lack of effective policy and limited infrastructure planning are bottle necking the usefulness of information sharing applications.

References

Safe city index 2015 white paper. (2015). Retrieved from  http://safecities.economist.com/whitepapers/safe-cities-index-white-paper/

Worst place to drive to work in the morning. (2010, September1). Retrieved from http://www.onemotoring.com.sg/publish/onemotoring/en/motoring_buzz/Motoring_News/Best_and_worst_travel_times_in_Singapore.html

Ananda T, Pribadi W, Atmi.P, Wanto. (2013, September 22). Jokowi: Jakarta's Traffic Most Affected by Cheap Cars. Retrieved from http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2013/09/22/057515573/Jokowi-Jakartas-Traffic-Most-Affected-by-Cheap-Cars


Ben, O. (2014, July 14). When Will Jakarta’s MRT Be Finished? New Answer Coming in September. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/indonesiarealtime/2014/07/20/when-will-jakartas-mrt-be-finished-new-answer-coming-in-september/


Adonai. (2015, February 9). Jakarta flooded as peak rainy season approaches, Indonesia. Retrieved from http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2015/02/09/jakarta-flooded-as-peak-rainy-season-approaches-indonesia/


7 reason to love public transport in 2015 (2015). Retrieved from http://www.mot.gov.sg/Transport-Matters/Public-Transport/7-reasons-to-love-public-transport-in-2015/