Khanna (2015) in “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 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 these users. While these technological applications increase the spread of information and help ease some infrastructure constraints, they provide little value to the public in these countries to help solve their traffic and flood issues.
Firstly, some of the so-called "innovative" applications, have limited application. One example given by Khanna is Beeline, which has 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 is 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. The routes that are shown on the Beeline official website 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 the congestion during peak hours when they are sending more buses to the central area 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 economist (2015), Jakarta is ranked number 1 with the worst traffic in the world. Dewanti (2015) point out how Jakarta’s bad traffic is getting worst mainly due to the disproportional increase of car numbers as to increase of road ratio. On top of that, despite being one of the world’s most congested cities, Jakarta only has one rail-based form of public transportation. Ben (2014) mentioned that Jakarta has been swamped by a host of problems like land requisition issues that involve clearing other infrastructures, and hence new mass rapid transit(MRT) has been delayed numerous time. As such, this application (QLUE) could only be used as a tool for observation and does not alleviate the underlying problems.
According to Adonai (2015), with regards to devastating floods, Jakarta is affected badly from the monsoon peak. They have rendered 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 in 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 reducing the effectiveness of information sharing applications.
References
The economist. (2015). Safe city index 2015 white paper. Retrieved from
TOMTOM (2010, September1).Safe city index 2015 white paper. 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/
Dewanti, A.W., & Indra B.,(2015). Jakarta has 'worst traffic in the world'. Retrieved from
Hi Hongyi your reader response really improve a lot from the first draft. I find it much more easy to understand your point of view now. With better supporting evidences compared to the first draft, this reader draft is much more improved version. Good job Hongyi.
ReplyDeleteHello Hong Yi,
ReplyDeleteI remember when we worked on the summary together for this article :)
It was a fun journey to summarize the points and combine them together.
I disagree on you linking what Khanna mentioned regarding the use of technological applications and the little value it gives to the countries in solving flood issues.
The QLUE mobile app helps the Indonesian authorities respond quickly to floods and also enables the "flood reporting is everyones responsibility" mentality. This means that anyone who spots flood issues may report to the authorities through the app conveniently. This expands the reach of flood reporting as anybody with the mobile app may report floods at anytime. Information is the first thing that the authorities need in dealing with the floods and saving lives should be the first priority. Other things like infrastructural issues caused by the floods can be dealt with at other times. Hence, I find that this creative idea of crowd-sourcing do provide much value to Indonesia in solving flood issues.
I like how you explained why Beeline is not helping with the traffic issues in Singapore. Your paragraph on the different areas experiencing traffic congestion and how Beeline only adds to the congestion is well researched.
Your thesis is clear and the focus of your reader response is clearly on the technology applications.
Well done!