Living in Jakarta is definitely not recommended for the faint-hearted. Many things have been done to alleviate the traffic jams, but none of those seemed to help much at all. I have to get out of my tiny rented room by 06.40 am in order to get to Grogol 2 Busway terminal by 06.50 am sharp or I’ll have a miserable morning – like today.
If I miss several minutes, and reach Grogol2 by, say 07.10, I’ll have to enjoy an extremely packed, airless bus, standing for the next 90 minutes!
Let’s see what has been done to alleviate the horrible Jakarta traffic:
1. Three-in-one
The crazy regulations that forced people to have at least 3 persons in their cars on certain hours. It doesn’t work, but at least it opened up another “job” opportunity. Now ‘joki‘ – a person who offers the service of sitting in your car just so you make the 3 persons count -is counted as a real job.
2. Busway!
These days, busway is my main transportation, it’s much safer than the normal buses, and slightly more convenient too, however.. there’s just not enough busways for the whole city! Without enough busways, people will still have to rely on their cars. And the cycle continues..
Jakartanese love to blame busways for traffic jams too, complicated huh?
3. Increase public transport ?
Still not enough, and perceived to be very dangerous. The smaller buses- metromini and kopaja – are in horrible conditions, their breaks aren’t working and they emit horribly toxic black colored fumes. The bigger buses are in equally poor condition, plus there will always be thugs, beggars and other craziness.
4: Urbanization control
Errrmm … I think this one isn’t working either.
5. And the worst of them all : MAKING SCHOOLS START BY 06.30 am !
Poor students! And by doing this, the traffic jam is actually pushed earlier. Just imagine, a regular mum and dad in Jakarta will have to drop the kids to school before 06.30. Schools used to start at 07.00 and most kids had to get out of their door by 06.00 am. And now, they have to get out by 05.30 +_+. Luckily I’m not in school anymore.
I believe the answer to this problem is as simple as making the public transportation system better and safer, And maybe we need to return to Pak Soeharto’s era of strict population control.
What do you think?
What? population control? oh men, what about those who are newly weds and loves to making baby? hehehe…
yayaya..faint-hearted person will not chose to live in jakarta, at the most they will only live in bintaro and work in that area as well
Smile, haha, 2 anak cukup mate ! Bintaro is not in Jakarta anymore??? Now that’s new ..
omg Sand…u just know bintaro is not jakarta anymore….duuuh ampuun…hahahha
i think the reasonable solution is that to restrict new cars to be sold in Jakarta by all ATPM. this way it will reduce the amount of cars on the road. thus, the amount of road with the amount of cars using it will be at least equal or even better the roads will have more space…
in addition, like you said, government should have strict population control and also a very strict urbanization control. I can’t stand watching on tv where every lebaran people keep coming to Jakarta and say, “Ya, pokoknya mau kerja di jakarta, hidup lebih baik dari di kampung….kerja apa aja deh…yang penting kerja..”
Work can be done anywhere actually, it’s only a matter of motivation, focus, sustainability, and creativity…in which most low education level citizens don’t have…
yet again…we will still have this macet problem for good…*sigh
that’s why I don’t drive, I ride motorcycle….=)
@dj0k3rz :
“Work can be done anywhere actually, it’s only a matter of motivation, focus, sustainability, and creativity…”
Wow.. that is sooo deep bro, now you are ready to a public speaker (or at least a family speaker first, hehe). Congratulation for ur first child mate..
@sandy :
jk
Errr..actually some part of Bintaro no longer Jakarta but the rest still. Niway, the birth control program will not be applied to those who have worked in Cikarang before as they suspected tent to has problem w/ their fertility due to level of heat at that area..hehe
@dj0kerz : nice observation. Yesterday I saw a baby and her mother playing and preparing for bed time by the busy street in Grogol, no bed, and without any roof to shelter them at all, last night – if you recalled, Jakarta was extremely windy too
. It’s kinda sad, I bet they’ll at least have a proper bed if they were in the village.
@smile: haha, you forgot to mention the radiation..
another solution:
all the offices in south jakarta only accepts employees or future employees who lives nearby….say 2 or 3 km radius…..
same should apply for north, central, west, and east jakarta accordingly………that way there will be less traffic than what we have now…for sure
what we have now is this:
a family lives in bekasi
dad — works in slipi
mom — works in sudirman
son — goes to school in karawaci
daughter — goes to playgroup in kebayoran baru
now do u see the traffic???
definitely! That family reminds me of this couple – they have no kids nor cats yet but the husband goes to work in Cikarang and the wife in South Jakarta.. tsk tsk …
where u work, where u live and where u go home to now !?
Working in a software house in Pd Indah -> going home to Tg Duren if I’m too tired -> living in Cikarang hahaha , complicated