Alfred Sitorus from the Coalition of Pedestrians in Jakarta holding a placard that says: "Indonesians are lazy walking because ....?". Credit:Tatan Syuflana (For the record, Australia was the 19th laziest country with 4941 steps a day.) "Footpaths are often uncomfortable, unsafe, sometimes non-existent and often occupied by street vendors or used as a parking lots for motorcycles," Sitorus says. "Now people tend to ride their motorbikes just to buy cigarettes from a warung [roadside stall] or kiosk that is 50 metres away from their house." A movement to reclaim the pavement was born in 2011 after Sitorus and his friends realised they shared experiences of being scolded by street vendors for walking on the footpath or nearly bowled over by motorbikes.

Motorcyclists, police and pedestrians share roads and footpaths in Jakarta, Indonesia Credit:Tatan Syuflana "Our life was in danger when walking," Sitorus says. As an, ahem, footnote, the same group had been instigators in 2007 of Jakarta's famous Car-Free Days, in which vehicles are banned from the capital's main thoroughfares between 6am and 11am every Sunday. Alfred Sitorus. Credit:Tatan Syuflana The mass euphoria of being able to access normally-gridlocked streets on foot, bicycle or rollerskate is so palpable the Car-Free Days always have a carnival-like atmosphere.

"Since we were the ones who initiated the Car-Free Day movement in Indonesia and it became quite successful and has now spread to 60 cities, we decided to launch another initiative called the Coalition of Pedestrians," Sitorus says. The movement really gained momentum after a shocking car accident on January 22, 2012, when a motorist mounted a curb near the Tugu Tani monument in the Jakarta suburb of Menteng and mowed down pedestrians, killing nine. The coalition declared January 22 National Pedestrian Day and redoubled its efforts to educate street vendors, motorbike riders and electricians, who dig up footpaths to repair cables. "The government has data that 18 pedestrians die every day in Indonesia," Sitorus says. "The reasons are varied … undisciplined riders, street vendors who erect their warungs on the footpath, electricity works, all of which force pedestrians to walk on the streets." About 30,000 people have liked Koalisi Pejalan Kaki's postings on social media and there are now branches of the movement in 10 cities, including Bogor, Makassar, Semarang, Yogyakarta and Medan.

Sympathisers send paint to help the footpath warriors patch up zebra crossings. "At the moment we are collecting the websites of local governments so whenever there is a public complaint about footpaths or zebra crossings we can inform them." Sitorus says that most of the Coalition's requests to governments fall on deaf ears. But it clocked up a win last year when the Jakarta administration pledged to fix 2700 kilometres of footpaths. "However it cannot be realised soon because the Jakarta government can only build 50 kilometres annually," Sitorus says. So, where are the best footpaths in Indonesia?

Surabaya, the nation's second-largest city, is the unequivocal response. Unlike in Jakarta, Sitorus says, all the footpaths are the same model, which makes maintenance easier and more cost efficient. Surabaya also has manholes to access electricity cables underneath the footpaths, which means they don't have to be continually dug up. Loading "We want the Ministry of Public Transportation to tell all regional governments to have a footpath masterplan so cities can be built in a more integrated way." Follow Jewel Topsfield on Facebook