I hope you don’t laugh at me when you see the title of this writing. It sounds funny, doesn’t it? Yes. Nobody should, actually, question about the sidewalk function.
I should not either.
Based on Merriam Webster, a sidewalk is a usually paved walk for pedestrians at the side of a street.
Having tried to see other online dictionary and also the print dictionary, I could not find other meanings that explain differently. No one. All is the same mentioning a sidewalk is for “pedestrians to walk”.
Some other words with the same meaning are pavement, footway etc also contain no other meaning besides “a way for pedestrians”.
However, being an Indonesian for the whole of my life, I have seen a lot of evidence that Indonesians tend to interpret everything differently.
Indonesians find there are three other sidewalk functions in Indonesia. Perhaps, in future, some persons may propose to the Merriem Webster Online or other online dictionaries to enter their interpretation of sidewalk to be included as new meanings for the word.
What sidewalk function do Indonesians invent? You can take a look at the below
Three Other Sidewalk Functions in Indonesia
As Parking Lot
Yes. This is the new invention of Indonesia other sidewalk function.
The pavement is found to be quite useful to store any vehicles. Motorcycles or cars are quite fit to be parked on the pedestrian walk.
It can also provide a temporary job opportunity for many jobless to be sudden parking attendants.
What laws says? Well. Let’s forget about the laws. Despite, it clearly says that sidewalk is for pedestrians only, the authorized officers tend to ignore even they see the pedestrian walk is used as parking lot.
They tow cars parked on roadside but do nothing if the cars are parked on sidewalk.
Alternative Way For Motorcyclists To Avoid Jammed Streets
Everybody knows, traffics in Indonesia are overcrowded. In peak hours, there is almost no empty space on our streets and road. Not even an inch.
Indonesia motorcyclists have found a solution that will help, at least themselves to go through the overcrowded streets with ease. In this case, another way to utilize sidewalks.
As mentioned in previous article, motorcyclists, in Jakarta or any other cities in Indonesia have regularly ride on pavements. Some cases of accidents caused pedestrian victims have been reported.
(Please also see : 8 Reckless Things Indonesia Motorcylists Do)
To Earn A Living (Street Vendors)
What other thing found on our sidewalk is it is quite spacious. After considering space used for parking lot, and also for riders to go through, it is found there are still some more space.
It can be used for street vendors and provide some people to earn a living. Creative? Surely it is. Especially in a country where jobless people population is very high. This is really a good solution, isn’t it?
But how about pedestrians? Where can they walk?
Well. That’s what I said on the first paragraph. Not too far from now, probably, there will be a contingent to Merriem Webster office to strongly push to replace the meaning of sidewalk, pavement or footway by these new sidewalk functions invented by Indonesians.