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Pertahanan Terbaik adalah Menyerang: Napoleon Bonaparte

Pertahanan terbaik adalah menyerang. Dengan jalan pikiran tersebut, seorang petarung menciptakan peluangnya sendiri untuk menang. Tidak berdiam diri untuk menunggu momentum, melainkan menjemput bola untuk meraih kemenangan. Strategi ini dinilai lebih berani ketimbang menunggu musuh dari dalam benteng, karena petarung tersebut berusaha keluar dari cengkraman musuh dan sekaligus mendominasi lawan.

Untuk mengaplikasikan strategi tersebut diperlukan kecepatan tinggi. Napolen Bonaparte, seorang Kaisar dan Jendral yang jenius, adalah komandan yang menggunakan kecepatan tinggi untuk mengalahkan manuver lawan-lawannya. Rivalnya seringkali terkejut dengan siasat perang Napoleon yang menyerang dari samping, dari belakang, dan atau melingkari pasukan lawan. Banyak Kaisar dan Panglima perang Eropa yang kewalahan untuk menghadapi Napoleon seorang diri. Sampai-sampai mereka harus membentuk aliansi/koalisi militer untuk mengimbangi keperkasaan militer Prancis di bawah naungan Napoleon Bonaparte.

Salah satu kemenangan heroik yang diraih Napoleon adalah ia berhasil menahan pasukan Austria yang jumlahnya sangat besar di Italia, 50.000 tentara. Pada bulan Oktober 1796, Napoleon yang berusia 26 tahun menghadapi Jendral senior dari Austria, Baron Joseph d’Alvintzi. Pasukan Austria menyerang basis Napoleon di Verona dengan dua pasukan. Pasukan utama dipimpin oleh d’Alvintzi melalui jalur atas dan pasukan kedua dipimpin oleh Jendral asal Rusia, Davidovich yang mengambil jalur bawah.

 D’Alvintzi membawa pasukan sebanyak 18.000 dan Davidovich membawa pasukan yang lebih besar. Rencananya ialah memerangkap Napoleon di antara kedua pasukan ini. Jendral Autria itu memberi pilihan sulit kepada lawannya. Bila Napoleon memperkuat pasukan untuk melawan Davidovich, Verona akan melemah terhadap serangan d’Alvintzi. Sebalinya, jika ia memperkuat pasukan untuk melawan d’Alvintzi, Verona akan jatuh di tangan Davidovich. Ditambah lagi, bila salah satu pasukan dapat melewati Verona, pasukan Austria dapat membebaskan sekutunya di Mantua yang berjumlah 20,000 tahanan perang. D’Alvintzi juga tahu bahwa pasukan Prancis sangat kelelahan karena telah bertarung tanpa istrirahat yang cukup dalam 6 bulan terakhir.

Di awal November, d’Alvintzi telah memasuki Utara Italia. Sementara itu, Napoleon mengirim pasukan kecil untuk menghadapi Davidovich. Dengan jalan ini, Napoleon harus membayarnya dengan dua kekalahan beruntun, kekalahan terhadap Davidovich dan kekalahan melawan d’Alvintzi di Caldiero, 18 km dari barat Verona.

Napoleon membalikan keadaan dengan memutus jalur komunikasi dan perbekalan pasukan Austria. Ia juga berhasil mensiasati lawannya dengan memberi kabar burung. Alhasil, d’Alvintzi gagal membaca gerakan Napoleon yang telah membagi pasukannya di Verona untuk menghadapi d’Alvintzi atau Davidovich. Lagipula, Jendral Austria itu terdistraksi untuk menyerang perbekalan pasukan Prancis di Villa Nova ketimbang merebut Verona terlebih dahulu.

Titik-balik terjadi ketika dua pasukan itu bertempur di sekitar sungai Arcola. Prancis melawan habis-habisan pasukan Austria. Napoleon memimpin beberapa penyerangan dan hampir saja gugur di medan perang. Setelah bertarung yang tiada membuahkan hasil di kedua pihak, tiba-tiba saja di hari ketiga pasukan Prancis berhasil menyelinap ke samping barisan pasukan Austria. Suara terompet berganti dengan teriakan dan tembakan yang bertubi-tubi. Kemunculan yang tak terduga dan tiba-tiba itu membuat pasukan Austria panik. Tanpa menghitung pasukan lawan yang datang dari samping, d’Alvintzi mundur seketika untuk menghidari Napolen yang sudah membuat barisan di sungai Arcola.

D’Alvintzi harus mengurungkan asanya untuk merebut Verona dan membebaskan tahanan perang di Mantua. Entah bagaimana Napoleon merebut kemenanan setelah menerima kekalahan beruntun. Kemenangan di pertempuran Arcola menambah daftar kekalahannya sehingga masuk dalam kategori Jendral legendaris. 

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Answering the Chicken-Egg Problem in Traffic Jams

Traffic jam is a common sight in metropolitan cities. Traffic jams usually occur during peak hours, when people go to the office and return home. Congestion happens when the capacity of a highway can not accommodate the flow of vehicles in a certain amount. The mainstream solution is to maximize or increase road capacity. On the other hand, another solution is to reduce population mobility by cutting the distance from the starting point to the destination.

In a simple definition, congestion is an obstruction to the flow of mobilization because roads can not accommodate people's movements, especially during peak hours when population mobility is at its highest level. During weekdays, congestion usually occurs when residents go to work and return from work. Congestion also occurs on weekends, because many people go to places like malls, Puncak Bogor, zoos, etc.

According to the Tomtom Traffic Index 2022, London is the most congested city in the world. To cover 10 km, the average time needed is quite long, which is 36 minutes 40 seconds with an average speed of 14 km/hour. Bengaluru (India), Dublin (Ireland), Sapporo (Japan), and Milan (Italy) follow as the most congested cities in the world. Each travel time is not much different, which is around 27-29 minutes per 10 km with an average speed of 17-18 km per hour. Meanwhile, Jakarta is in the 29th position. It takes 22 minutes 40 seconds per 10 km with an average speed of 22 km/hour. Jakarta is 14 minutes faster than London.

Within the scope of Southeast Asia, Jakarta is the second most congested city after Manila (Philippines). The difference is only 5 minutes, 27 minutes per 10 km, with an average speed of 20 km/hour. Traffic jams in Jakarta and Bangkok (Thailand) are almost the same. In Bangkok, the travel time is 20.5 minutes, with an average speed of 25 km/hour. Meanwhile, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) are quite faster than these three countries, whose travel time is around 16 minutes per 10 km with an average speed of 30 km/hour.

If we look deeper, the causes of congestion are the increasing population, the growth of vehicle sales, public transportation that has not met expectations, and lifestyle.

Talking about Jakarta for example. The main factor of congestion is the population. There are around 10.6 million permanent residents in Jakarta, with a density of 17,013 people/km square (ranked 29th as the most populous city). Moreover, there are around 1 million commuters going in and out of the capital city. You can imagine if only 50% use the highway, there will be 5.3 million that will enliven the main roads in the capital city.

There are 26.3 million vehicles in Jakarta in 2022. Approximately, about 65% of them are motorcycles (merely 17 million units). It is followed by passenger cars, which is close to 3.7 million. The rest is around 770 thousand buses and trucks. Its growth continues to increase. For example, the number of motorcycles increased by 7.6% in 2021.

Public transportation in Jakarta has no significant effect to lower the level of traffic congestion. Even though the Mass Rapid Train (MRT) has been delivered in Jakarta, its route is not very strategic and only covers a small part of Jakarta, from Lebak Bulus Station to Kota Station. Transjakarta is also not very practical to use because it can not be relied on to move quickly.

In terms of lifestyle, it is found that not only the upper-class love to visit entertainment and shopping centers, but the middle class also does it. The problem is the distance is too far from home. On weekends, places like shopping centers, restaurants, etc are filled with many people.

The mainstream solution taken by the authorities is to maximize or increase the capacity of highways, such as widening roads, making flyovers, building underground roads, building toll roads, and so on. Problems will come again when the capacity is full again. As a result, the same solution will be repeated again, without answering the problem.

Apart from that, the alternative solution is to minimize population mobility. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the distance between residents and places like offices, shopping centers, recreation areas, and so on. The goal is to make mobility faster because the distance to the destination is cut. Its manifestation, for example, is building multi-story residential packages, designing anti-jamming planetology, and upgrading the quality of traditional market infrastructure.

Multi-story housing is already done in many big cities around the world. Culturally, it is not the preferred choice of our society. However, this will greatly contribute to the drop in congestion level. Especially in a package form. The package is a combination of houses, shopping centers, restaurants, recreational facilities, simple health facilities, and simple educational facilities in one place. This concept will reduce people's mobility.

Build anti-jamming planetology. In the past, we have heard that housing development policies should adopt a pattern of 1-3-6. If one luxury house is built, there should be three middle-class houses and six lower-middle-class to follow. With this composition, houses become affordable for the citizen. Of course, the scheme must be strict to determine who has the right to own the house. The hope is million people who commute could be reduced. To implement such a thing, good collaboration among the community, government, and the private sector is needed.

Lifestyle changes might also help to lower congestion. For example, changing a habit in shopping behavior. Goods purchased from the mall are shifted to the traditional market. Previously, people would visits malls with very high intensity, now many things can be done “back of the house”. In terms of cost and time, this would have an impact on saving the transaction process. Community economic infrastructure needs to revitalize. This can be done by revitalizing the tradisional market. So when peopel want to shift their lifestyle, the insfrasturcture is ready.

Supporting innovations like Gojek and Grab could bring a positive impact. It is already proven that such kinds of applications make people's life easier. We could use their services to fulfill our needs like transportation or even shopping. We do not need to use private vehicles thanks to Gojek and Grab.