More than 20 members of the Indonesian Tintin Lovers Community conducted Tour de Busway on Saturday as part of a campaign to promote environmentally friendly and healthy lifestyles in the city.
The fans of the world-famous Belgian cartoon character attempted to popularize the TransJakarta bus route, popularly known as the Busway, among Jakarta residents as an environmentally friendly alternative means of transportation.
They took the tour from Krida Loka Park in Senayan, Central Jakarta to the Old Town in Kota, West Jakarta.
“The go-green program is in line with Tintin’s lifestyle in the comic strips,” the community’s founder Surjorimba Sutoro told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
Surjorimba mentioned two of Tintin’s adventures he deemed to be in favor of environmental conservation, namely Tintin’s adventure in Africa and his adventure in Amazon, Brazil.
He said although the comic strips were created decades ago, their topics of discussion were still relevant today.
“Tintin comic strips and characters can be used as a tool in environmental campaigns,” he said, adding the characters have millions of supporters around the globe.
The program was organized by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) in cooperation with the TransJakarta management body (BLU), Indonesian Tintin Lovers Community, Jakarta Green Monster Community, Komunitas Historia, and Komunitas Suara Transjakarta.
According to ITDP, the TransJakarta busway has been using more environmentally friendly and cleaner technology by using natural gas fuel.
The natural gas fuel releases less carbon emissions than diesel fuel.
The tour began with visiting Krida Loka Park. Volunteers from a community involved in efforts of creating the green Jakarta, guided several groups of the community throughout the enclosed five-hectare green space containing various rare species of plants and birds.
The community continued the trip by walking down the road to the city police Busway stop, one kilometer away from the park to take a TransJakarta bus running from the city police to the Kota bus stop.
A volunteer from a museum lover community, Komunitas Historia, Yansen, gave a guided tour to entertain the community members on the way to Kota on the bus.
He reminded them of the establishment of the city in 1527. He said in 1640, the river on Jl. Gajah Mada was once called Molenvliet, which means waterwheel canal, because of the many waterwheels standing on the river.
“Now, the river is plagued with trash.”
After the bus arrived at Kota station, the community walked down the road of the Old Town, following a trail marked by the Dutch colonial administration across the area and headed for the Jakarta History Museum.
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`Tour de Busway’ with Tintin (Jakarta)