Responsible Citizens

Walking the paved streets of Copenhagen, Denmark, on a beautiful summer’s day that varies between a balmy 25 degrees and a rather nippy 15 degrees Celsius, I wonder what it is that makes a city work for the people who live in it. 

Obviously regulating only 500,000 inhabitants such as the municipality of Copenhagen is vastly different than, say, trying to impose law and order in a sprawling metropolis of more than 10 million people like Jakarta, although I don’t think the number of people plays the only crucial role in getting the system running. Tokyo, for instance, seems to function well despite the city’s population density.

To be sure, having plenty of police officers around helps, especially when the traffic is congested and also to make sure that rules are not broken and the system is followed. But I’m more than convinced that more powerful and effective than any implementation of law and order is self-regulation and a personal sense of need by citizens to stick to the rules. 

It helps a good deal, of course, if the rules are a product of consensus, understood and accepted by all and not through some arbitrary bright ideas shaped by dim politicians who may not have the constituents’ interests at heart. But even more important in getting people to follow the rules is if the system makes it easier and more beneficial if one plays within it rather than outside it. That is to say, it is easier to do good if there is some kind of incentive that goes along with it. 

For example, if our government really wants to encourage less pollution and control the number of cars in the city, the easiest way is to create a road system that supports decent public transportation and create lanes for cyclists, rather than coming up with a system that only worsens the traffic situation for everybody. 

Here in Copenhagen, the streets are equally divided between three types of road users: car drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. Each is entitled to use the designated space safely; the bicyclist is not in danger of being knocked down by a car, while the pedestrian is safe from the horde of speedy cyclists. Moreover, the sidewalks are wide enough for the handicapped to maneuver without posing a danger to themselves or to others. 

This is the opposite of the roads in Jakarta, where every mode of transportation, including foot traffic, fights for every inch of space and where those who cut corners and bend the rules generally get the better deal or buy themselves out of the system. 

The other thing I notice in Denmark, and it’s not necessarily because they’re more health and environmentally conscious (as a matter of fact, a lot of people seem to smoke here and litter a lot in public parks after their picnics), is their respect for energy. The reason being the cost of energy use, especially for heating — and it gets pretty cold here in winter — is high for the average household, thus forcing people to go to great lengths to insulate their homes and minimize their energy use in order to keep their heating and electricity bills down. 

A Danish woman I met actually moved out of the city to live in a passive, or energy-intelligent, house in the suburbs for long-term financial reasons, but the idea of emitting less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is also good for her conscience. Her passive house might have cost a bit more to build initially, but she reaped the dividends on her first heating bill, which was much smaller than at her less-well insulated apartment in Copenhagen. 

The government here also makes it easier for householders, and more profitable for companies, to opt to recycle their waste than just having it incinerated. Companies that send their waste to their local recycling plant need not pay tax on their waste treatment, while the many specially designated garbage bins placed around the city, and the proximity of neighborhood recycling plants, make waste sorting and disposal easy and rewarding for households. Moreover, pennies can be earned by returning cans and bottles to stores. The government also encourages less waste by charging customers for plastic bags at supermarkets, encouraging shoppers to bring their own bags. 

Perhaps, at the end of the day, when there is a higher price to pay for not playing by the system created for the public good, then people become naturally responsible citizens. 

Compare this to Jakarta, where it’s often easier and more effective to break the rules than to follow them.

(Desi Anwar. First published in The Jakarta Globe)