Drivers in Jakarta

Drivers in Jakarta

I have noticed that your column has had a number of letters recently about the standard of driving in Jakarta, and I would like to add my observations as a visitor.

One of the most puzzling aspects of the style of driving here is how, in such a well-mannered, polite and orderly society as yours, does the change occur when an Indonesian sits behind a steering wheel? No trace is left of the manners which one encounters elsewhere in your culture. The maneuvers carried out, being mostly the cutting-in or across the path of other vehicles without due regard to their presence, seems greatly out of character compared to that found in other parts of their life.

I must say further that this is accompanied by what seems to be great restraint on the part of other motorists. Should an Indonesian drive in that manner back in the U.K., he or she would receive short shrift from British motorists, resulting in much horn blowing, gesticulation of the universal sign, and probably accompanied by a display of vocabulary not found in a dictionary. Should he or she drive like that in the U.S., a couple of rounds from a 0.45 would probably be the answer.

One of the main maneuvers that traffic engineers rely on being undertaken in the design and layout of junctions is "the merge". I have yet to observe a site in Jakarta where this takes place satisfactorily. The main obstacle to this maneuver is the preoccupation of Jakarta drivers with positioning their front bumper marginally ahead of the vehicle alongside them, thus, hopefully, denying any one the chance of joining that particular lane of traffic. This practice also extends to "marking one's spot" in the middle of a junction, regardless of whether any further progress is likely to be made.

If Jakarta drivers would just start to "give" a little instead of trying to drive up the exhaust pipe of the vehicle in front, then perhaps many of the queues which are part of the traffic scene in Jakarta would disappear.

So, next time someone wants to slot into your queue, why not let him? Next time the traffic signals are about to turn red and the road ahead is blocked, why not wait? The traffic in the other direction can then proceed. What have you got to lose? Only a few minutes.

LANCE FOGG

Jakarta