Aditya Cakasana Janottama

AJ

A medical doctor, with interest in language and sustainable transportation

Location Surabaya, ID

Activity

  • Heritage (especially physical one) should not be too commoditized, or it could end itself due to overconsumption by tourists. We could see the example in some Thai islands that close itself to tourism due to too many tourist ending up ruining the environment

    But I agree that it should follow the economic logic, so that at least it can maintain itself,...

  • I came from Surabaya, a city famous for the battle defending our independence. Besides that, we have a (somewhat preserved) old city with several old buildings. If I could say, our biggest asset is our food

  • Public participation here is kind of poor, there are only a few chance of this, even then those who are coming is “selected” by the govts (by only disseminating information about such event in limited space). Thus, their opinion does not reflect what we actually wanted.

  • I’m a doctor and will always be a doctor, but I am one that put emphasize on how our environment could shape our state of health

  • The bus in our city does not accept cash payment at the very beginning. Only when people started to protest it the government softened its stance and open the cash payment option

  • I rarely write, but I read a lot. But, one thing that bothers me is that I lost a lot of my attention span since I exposed myself to computer and internet. Back then I can read 200 page of a book in 1 day, and finish books in just 4-5 days but nowadays it's so hard for me. I read a lot but on different topics, and most of the time it takes me pore than a month...

  • Currently I read a Brazilian book called "Minhas Paginas Matinais" or roughly translated as morning diary. The writer wrote her experience about life, and as the focus of the book, burnout syndrome. It is enticing as it also shows how her understanding of the world changed as the burnout (and its healing) progressed. A must read if you can speak Portuguese.

  • Yes, I still prefer the old way to read book (which is hard-copy one). But for research, of course internet is the way to go, and (by doing this so often) it destroyed our attention span. I don't know why but that's my observation

  • I think in my country, yes. We are still having this thing called inferiority complex, in which we always think that everything exported (or made abroad) is better than what we have

  • The earlier art is more realistic compared to the later works, perhaps because at first Australia was an uncharted territory and European needs to understand them more before being creative with it

  • The most common example is when people see a tube as circle from one side and a rectangular from the other side. Only those who see it from different angle will perceive it as a tube

  • Because everyone can look at epistemology from different point-of-view, so it is not wrong to have such differing views about "what is epistemology". It is up to our own to interpret epistemology, but surely it will be based on our previous experience or knowledge.

  • As someone who worked in medical field, there are times when we see human as only "patient". This is where I think I've been wrong, because each of us has so many sides to look at.

  • I am interested in language and political science, because both of them are fascinating to me, especially language one.

  • Because of course each of us should know better what it means to be human.

  • Agree, most of the times we live somewhere only because that's what we can afford. A lot of my friends are now still paying installments for their house, which is located 20-30km from their place of work. How could that be healthy, especially when there's no urban transport mode available

  • I have known about how living in a place with good public transportation makes you healthy (based on my own experience), but why this course is important is because it also teach you how to measure it, because measurement makes things easily digested by public, instead of a mere theory.

  • Volunteered data is not reliable, because every person has its own way of measuring stuffs. For example, (when it comes to transport) a place that is convenient to be visited by car is not always that convenient for thosewalking or using public transport, etc.

  • I'd like to measure the cycling infrastructure in my hometown and where I am currently resided, but unfortunately both of them are still poor

  • I'd rather comment on problem B, as problem A is still far from our reach here in a developing nation.

    The hinder is car usage, and priority. So the stakeholder that we need to approach is definitely the city administrative, and those who have the ability to invest on a bike-share scheme. Activities that could support this cause is the provision of...

  • In most major cities in Indonesia, the bike lane lost priority to car lane, even the police itself gave support to removing bike lanes. It's a disaster, but that's what it is.

  • The problem is in balancing the options and discussing it. Most of the time it ended up with no conclusion, and no step is taken (meaning that it's just stuck).

    Oh and also, there's another one that is crucial. It is when stakeholders are not realizing that they have a problem. That's what is happened in my city and other cities throughout the...

  • Same here, but the difference is that our city (Surabaya, ID) doesn't provide proper public transport for its citizen. Everything is handed over to market mechanism, meaning that only car (and motorcycle) producers and ride-hailing apps could reap profit, in expense of our quality of life

  • It's like a mobius strip. Something that never ends...

  • Political: (Lack of) political will of the government to provide public transport, (lack of) demand from inhabitants for public transport provision

    Economical: Low car tax, low fuel price

    Societal: "public transport is for the poor" stereotype, population growth

    Technological: Availability of electric-powered vehicle (being a consideration in the...

  • 1) Do you think that the current system supports your city´s competitiveness and attractiveness? Nope so far.

    2) What type of urban mobility decisions has been made in your city in order to strengthen this competitiveness and attractiveness? As of now we have a disintegrated public transport system (with various payment mechanism and disconnected routes)...

  • Hi! I'm Aditya, and I currently lead a public initiative to educate fellow citizens of Surabaya (Indonesia's 2nd largest city and metropolitan) about the importance of sustainable transport. Feel free to contact me if you need anything!

  • I want to continue develop my platform (social media) to reach and influence more people

  • I want everyone in my city to have access to public transport within walking range.

    My city will be a better place if my vision is materialized, because public transport access for everyone means equitable access towards jobs, healthcare, education, etc. It guarantees a better life for everyone either directly or indirectly.

  • Learnt about the golden rule in another course. It is definitely helpful

  • Why me? Maybe because I knew how things could change for a better future, but one thing that is important is that I already found people with the same passion and we are currently moving together towards our goal

  • It's always a combination when we talked about policy. The quantitative data is the backbone of your policy, while the qualitative data can help you narrate the policy, and communicate it better to people.

  • I think step 1 and 2 is where I can influence the most. Coincidentally both of them are steps that needs evidence & data the most.

  • For example, if my hypothesis is "provision of public and active transport will increase one's physical activity and hence, improving one's state of health", then what I do is looking for available research on that theme, and do a critical assessment on it.

    It is somewhat similar to what I did back then at the school/campus.

  • Without undermining the other seven, education, health, and environment-related issues are the most important for me because the three of them is core to our well-being.

  • The second one is the simplest and the one that (in my opinion) easiest to remember and to adhere with.

  • Mine is similar with the guy that talks about urban mobility. Even though I'm a doctor, I learned that a lot of our health problems (such as obesity and metabolic disease such as Diabetes type 2) could be solved by introducing a better mobility to everyone.

  • I hope by the end of this course I could really understand how policy is created, because I never learned it formally.

  • Hi! My name is Aditya and I'm an Indonesian. I worked as a medical doctor, but I also started a community for a better transportation in my hometown. I believe that transportation is an unseparated part of our daily living, hence improving it will subsequently improve our quality of life (which is the ultimate goal for us doctors).

  • Huge thanks to everyone in this course!

  • Follow-up from my previous plan at the first module, I'll still talk about Surabaya, my hometown which is the 2nd biggest city in Indonesia, inhabited by 3 mil inhabitants in the city proper area and >8 mnil inhabitants in the bigger metropolitan area.

    Analyzing further, it is very clear that our city's problem is that nobody care, and everybody think that...

  • My choice at the 5.3 is Bogota's BRT. Let's compare it to highway

    City design +1/-2
    Social equity +2/-2
    Environment 1/-2
    Economic +2/+1
    Well being +2/-1

  • BRT in Bogota could be translated really well to our city. We have an abundant of unused road space (especially in city centre where there are lots of one way road that is too wide because it was once a two-way road with tram) which should be managed better. BRT in additional with other measure such as wider space for pedestrian and bike lane should improve...

  • Electric bus seems gonna be a great start for our city, and we’re on a process to implement it in the end of this year.

    Let’s see what will happen…

  • Agree. I heard that Brazil heavily relies on cars and trucks (e.g. there is no railway connecting Rio and São Paulo which is just 400-500km away).

    Maybe they should start developing that too.

  • If only it was an option I think that this would be a great idea. Unfortunately there is no other option, and due to other things (namely bad management, long headway, and bad integration to other mode of transport) the daily passenger (before COVID) was ~4500 passengers/day for ~20 buses and 3 lines.

    We are currently pushing (through social media campaign)...

  • Our diesel is 20% made from biological source (palm oil IIRC). This is good, but could lead to further deforestation for palm plantation.

  • My pick for redesign is Embong Malang Street in Surabaya. It is an absurdly wide one-way avenue (once upon a time it was for two-way avenue with tram line). There are malls, hotels, and little shops there but it is difficult to access due to shops being on the other side of the road. My goal is to introduce street life by slowing cars down and allow safer...

  • Everything could be adapted here in Surabaya, as our city is a coastal city with flat terrain (although the weather could kill you when the temperature reached 36-37 degrees in August/September). The only problem, no political will and no pressure from the inhabitant itself, due to them being already too comfort in using private transportation.

    What we...

  • Similar bikeshare program is being started in Jakarta although per my observation, the usage is still very low. This could be attributed to limited bike infra (only 5km of separated bike lane in the most important avenue in Jakarta, that is also served by a Metro)

    Meanwhile in my city? The mayor promised it in September 2020, and as of today nothing had...

  • Sorry my response is kinda slow. It's a bus. You could read about it here https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/bus-plastic-bottles-1.4874662

  • Unfortunately no. The presented data is very simple and only divide those between car, motorcycle, public transport, and walking-cycling (which number could be negliged)

  • Let's measure the main touristy thoroughfare in my city (Tunjungan street, Surabaya). I only measure one because the place where I work is pretty desolate.

    Diverse mix of pedestrian = 2 (Almost no pedestrian, mostly used for photo session or creating Instagram content)
    Environmental quality = 6
    Place to feel safe = 7
    Not too noisy = 4 (High...

  • A question: how could we convince the real estate developer to concede 20% of their project for social cause? Because this one will draw ire to most of developers that only think about profit and profit.

  • In my city, the latest data shown us that 82% of the modal share is dominated by motorcycle, which is bad. The public transport usage is somewhat high at 10%, but I am in doubt in whether ojek (the informal transport) is put into that data or not. Because, somehow a lot of city officials around the country assume that ojek is a kind of public...

  • Because... it's the only option. The government doesn't let us pay with money. It even stubbornly put a sign on every bus that said "We are not receiving any other payment other than plastic waste"

  • In my city (Surabaya, Indonesia), the most applicable concept is of course the BRT. We actually have planned it back in 2007-ish, but then it is canceled in favor of monorail and tram (which never left the drawing table until today). The barrier is that most of the inhabitant is against the BRT because it's not as sleek as tram, and they afraid that it will...

  • Here (Surabaya, Indonesia) the best transport option is the informal one called ojek. It's a ride-hailing service, regulated by two major apps, and the service is flexible. Convenient, but somewhat expensive if we compared those to public transport in the capital. The fare is distance-based, more expensive the further you go.

    To be more effective, I think...

  • The last time I used public transport in my city (Surabaya, Indonesia) was last year before all the lockdown (March). I rarely used it because the nearest stop is 1 km from my house, and the headway is abysmal (30-40 mins). The only way to pay them is by collecting plastic waste, which is way too difficult for those who already used reusable bottle.

  • Thank you everyone! It was a great course indeed, and I believe that all of us learned a lot from this.

  • This kind of understanding is what is lacking in most of our politicians here. Most of our politicians preferred to build shiny infrastructure that ultimately failed to fruition, or low patronage due to wrong planning (for example, LRT in Palembang)

  • -7.279347, 112.762244

    My rough estimation: 70% space for motorcycle and cars, 10% for pedestrian, 20% greenery. Looking at the streetview, it is saddening that 99% of the road users are either in a car or on a motorcycle. Could only find one (yes, just one) pedaled rickshaw crossing the junction. Their amount is also decreasing, due to rapid motorization in...

  • @VivianeWeinmann thank you! This would be very helpful to start the argument against uncontrollable growth of motorcycle.

  • The problem is that we couldn't get the chemistry with the other firm. It seems that both of us just doing what we're previously doing without being communicative. We expected little control but we actually expect more constructive criticism instead of this.

    I'm gonna present our project to them tomorrow and I'm not quite sure that what we're doing will...

  • Great presentation as always, but there is one aspect that I'd like to know more. As much as I know, in my country it is not car that is dominating the road, but the motorcycle. It's very cheap, and government were in support for this as they allow 0% installment, low tax, etc. Meanwhile people saw motorcycle as a symbol of class struggle, and as the weapon of...

  • From my experience in learning other stuff, it takes you a full immersion to get what you want to learn. So of course the only way to ensure I could improve is to engage with as many different individuals as possible, and try to build a good relation with them.

  • I have two very different goals:

    With my professional career: to enter residency (training to be a surgeon)
    With my community: to build networks in my hometown in promoting sustainable transportation for all.

    My biggest weak point is difficulty in creating a meaningful relation with other (because it's time-consuming for me), hence it's where I should...

  • Strength: Experience of communicating with various kind of people made me more open to new ideas.

    Challenge: Very strong tendency towards only one style of communication made it difficult sometimes.

  • Catherine is people-oriented, and Mr Kapoor is more towards action and time. I love how Catherine try to convince her boss by doing step-by-step reasoning (from the failure of previous training, to credibility which the local manager have, to relation between local managers and employee etc.), although it only shows on the 2nd half of the conversation.

    Mr...

  • Okay let's try to put into perspective my last experience in this.

    I was at the meeting with this multinational firm, but as usual I let my senior talk more (unless it's about a subject I knew better e.g. medical stuffs). Of course it may lead to the other party looking down on me, but I think it's better to be reserved rather than to show off. I have a...

  • Active listening, opening the conversation with open question instead of forcing someone into your agenda, well such simple approach proved to be the critical things needed for a better communication.

  • Hi, I'm Aditya and I worked daily as a medical doctor. Despite of that, I (and several other friends) manage a page on promoting a better transportation for our city of Surabaya, Indonesia. I'm very interested in sustainable transportation as it could solve one of our biggest health concern, which is sedentary lifestyle.

    Please take a look at our page at...

  • Ah welcome again!

  • Maria is definitely competing, while Gwan is more reserved although he definitely wanted to collaborate. Maria should be more accommodative to other's opinion, to allow a better discussion.

  • The problem is kind of clear. The guy (Gwan?) has more people and content-oriented approach while Maria (the boss) is concerned with timeframe and result. She loves to cut others while speaking, which irritates Gwan. In the meantime, Maria's irritated by how Gwan is handling this project, which to her shows incompetence. In my opinion it is because she doesn't...

  • There are several things that could really hamper progress in an intercultural meeting. In my other job (in a startup) we recently co-operate with multinational firm to run a project. I discovered that the clash of work culture is real.

    For example, the firm asked us to held a weekly meeting but it's just difficult for us to do that because the first...

  • The clear signs that you're listening is by engaging in the conversation and ask appropriate question. You know what, sometimes asking the right question could lead to even better discussion.

    This "active listening" skill is a must in my field.

  • No introduction is a bad way to start the meeting especially this meeting has only 5 participants. Faith and Ashley are doing as best as they can to smoothen the meeting but the other three are letting them down.

  • Ah the same here

  • One important thing is to know what the meeting is for. Also, if you're promoting an agenda at the meeting, make sure to have it said concisely and choose the right moment for it.

  • My team is our ER team. Most of us speaks at least 2 language (Indonesian & Javanese), and a lot of us speaks the third (English). It's a permanent, locally-sourced team. The team is highly influenced by hierarchy and Javanese culture.

    We are all located in the same place, and of course as an ER we meet face-to-face, and our patient came to us. We're a part...

  • Both cases are the usual fixture here. For case 2, we even coined a term to describe such situation, which rough translation is "rubber clock". Our clock is made of rubber so time is something very flexible.

    As a time-oriented person this is sometimes frustrating. For example, when I worked in Jakarta there was a meeting being scheduled for 9AM (in...

  • Of course we adapt ourselves to what we're facing. And indeed, there are several circumstances in which I act based on my observation.

  • UI and UX are like Venn's diagram with shared area

  • Hello everyone!

  • Thank you for all the knowledge and hard work put into this week's material. Feels good to be able to know myself more, while also learning how to tailor my approach towards other.

  • It's gonna be interesting to put my experience in doctor-patient relationship.
    Me: doctor, time-oriented
    Patients: most of them people-oriented

    Because most of us are people-oriented, my opening move is of course "being friendly and humorous". This usually works well when the patient is not in an emergency. But there will be times when other kind of...

  • Person A: One of my colleague
    Person B: My former boss
    Person C: My current boss (only recently)

    Person A is people-type, Person B & C are content-type (which is quite rare here). The difference is that B (perhaps) have more time preference. A values emotional bond, loves to befriend everyone and already get along well with me. Both of us respect each...

  • Alex: People (look on how he always mentioned a party - partner, speaker, vendor, staff, team)

    Lin: Time and Content. He's preoccupied with timeframe and goals (invitees)

  • It is still sometimes a problem, especially when I'm under pressure and failed to think clearly (I'm working in an ER and there are moments when it is quite tense, that we let our emotion engulf us).

    About people and action preference, it is kind of similar to most of my colleague in the place where I worked right now. During my first year I couldn't easily...

  • My highest score is on "Time"

    I think this is highly influenced by the kind of media I consumed, books I read, and also I just realize that my grandpa (who became role model for all of us due to his lifetime achievements) has similar character. Perhaps it also influenced the culture in my family (despite the fact that Javanese culture works in contrary with...

  • Kind of agree with this. Not a big fan of chit-chat.

  • Action 11, Content 12, People 9, Time 18

    Seems my preference could be expressed in a single sentence, "Don't waste my time."

  • I'd say I aligned more with the first one, and my friends here are more towards the Japanese. Back in the capital, my friends are more direct. We have known each other for 10 years as of now and things are always good (although we rarely communicate now due to difference in place of work, especially me living like 800km apart from them)

  • Well, let's try on my current job

    I'm quite a direct person while my colleagues are more reserved (as is the culture in the place where I worked)

    Attend: Try to observe more to understand each of my colleague's preference, looking for those I could approach with my usual way-of-life and taking notes on those to whom I need a change in my approach. Thus,...

  • Definitely the same case from a different perspective. Could relate to this because it is what usually happened in our classroom when we got a guest lecturer. The lecturer expected us to be actively involved but our culture is very reserved.

    Read about this in a book called “The Culture Map”. Should help you to understand more on this (and it is one of the...

  • Compared to the previous video, it seems that each of them is trying to adapt to their counterpart in this video. Maybe they’re not being themselves, but for a first impression it is what needed.

    One thing that I’m still disagree with is how Claire decided to sit like “that”. That could be interpreted as asserting dominance in some culture.

    About the...

  • If you’re planning to interact with someone from different culture for a long time, try to learn their language (this will automatically allows you to learn more about their culture by consuming a lot of their movie/book/etc.).

    One said, if you speak to someone in their mother tongue, it goes straight to his/her heart. Even a simple thanks in one’s native...

  • Let’s talk about strategy. My usual game is to try to find common passion to the person I’m interacting with. If he likes football, then we talk about it. If she loves classical music, then I could share with her something about Rachmaninov and Chopin, etc.

    In an interaction with limited time, this usually works. But it works differently when we’re...

  • Couldn’t agree more. It’s kind of difficult in a limited setting (in which I think the golden rule works better due to limitations), but it would definitely work wonders in an office or co-habitation where you’re expected to meet similar faces for a longer period of time, not just a one-off.

    Because, doing the platinum rule needs more digging into one’s...