Ubud is on track to become a traffic basket case, according to locally born urban transport management expert and secretary of the Gianyar office of information and communications, I Made Rai Ridartha.
“One problem is people don’t want to change. We need to try and change their [traffic] mindset, because if we don’t, in the end, people will stay away from Ubud,” says Ridartha, who last Friday spoke as an individual community member with the newly formed Bali Think Tank, a cross cultural group of people working to raise issues such as traffic.
“[Take] issues such as signage. Every time we put in an application for signage funding, its not there. It’s also common for underage children to be allowed to ride motor bikes — that is a serious problem that leads to deaths. Here in Bali we have almost two road deaths every day — more than 500 a year.”
Ridartha says the road toll carnage is a Bali-wide problem that in Ubud meets a confluence of other problems such as narrow roads, increasing traffic throughput, 80-seat busses, and inadequate parking space.
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“We have some opportunities in Ubud to overcome these problems that many see as just traffic or transport issues, but these are linked with social welfare that affects and is affected by society.”
Unfortunately people don’t want to change, he goes on. Roads have been made one way but that is ignored.
“There is a feeling that if you are local, you are above the law. And I must say that some police and members of my own team here allow that and are not keen to enforce the laws on their countrymen,” said Ridartha.
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Traffic at crisis levels in Ubud
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Originally Posted by JohnnyCool
