Driving in Jakarta takes nerves of steel

Having good health or being physically fit is not enough to drive in Jakarta: one needs guts, and maybe a touch of insanity.

Feeling unable to meet this extra, frivolous requirement, some people have stopped sitting behind the wheel altogether.

"I stopped driving because I could no longer tolerate the chaos on the streets," said a colleague recently, sounding exasperated. "Now I depend on my son to take me to the office in the morning and pick me up again in the evening."

Luckily, this buddy of mine in his 50s, who lives in Pondok Pinang, South Jakarta, has two grown-up children, including a son in college who doubles as his personal driver.

The peak of this colleague's frustration came one day when he was stuck in a traffic jam on the way to our Central Jakarta office. A luxury SUV cut into their lane when he and around 20 other motorists were waiting patiently, queued in the traffic.

"This enraged my son, who was driving. He got out of the car and approached the middle-aged driver who cut in."

Fearing that situation could spin out of control, he quickly got out and followed his son, catching up to ask him to get back in the car.

"My instinct was right. Instead of apologizing, the guy who cut in challenged me to a fight. He cooled down only after he found out that I was journalist."

Was this colleague too demanding -- perhaps like many people of his generation, who advocate an orderly and ethical life?

Whether yes or no, another, younger colleague who lives in Bintaro, a suburb south of Jakarta, said he too had quit driving as a kind of protest against the disorderly traffic. Now, he takes a taxi or an express bus, which is cheaper, safe and quite comfortable. In addition, he is free from the mental stress of hitting or being hit by other vehicles.

"On a bus or in a taxi I can rest, although I must be careful with my laptop when I bring it with me," he said.

The 1997 financial crisis, which eventually turned into the political crisis that brought Soeharto down from his 32-year rule, has also changed the political, economic and social landscape of Indonesia, including transportation.

In Jakarta, road development came to a halt, the discipline of motorists declined and law enforcement weakened. The number of vehicles, however, showed an opposite trend.

The capital is home to around 4.7 million vehicles: 1.4 million private cars, 403,000 commercial vehicles -- trucks, public buses and minivans -- and 2.6 million motorcycles. The figure continues to rise, and around 130 new cars are sold in Greater Jakarta every day, most destined for the capital's streets.

Following in the footsteps of metropolises in the world, Jakarta has built new overpasses, underpasses, toll roads and special busway projects to alleviate its traffic congestion. Several major thoroughfares have also been designated time- restricted zones for vehicles with less than three passengers: during the rush hours of 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Protests aside, the restricted zones met with some success, experiencing lighter traffic. But traffic became more congested in other areas, which pushed some motorists, especially middle- income earners, to switch from cars to motorcycles to cut costs and travel time -- even though motorcycles offer less security.

This influx of motorcycles has created even more problems for Jakarta's already excessive modes of transportation like buses, minivans, taxis and three-wheelers like bajaj, kancil and becak -- many of which ignore traffic regulations, but this is merely the tip of an iceberg.

Lately, traffic jams and on-road disorderliness, which has long been cause for concern among the capital's business community, has now become a common sight in towns outside Jakarta, including medium-sized towns like Pekanbaru.

A Californian who is working for an oil company in Pekanbaru, Riau, complained in an email, "Management doesn't let us drive ourselves outside camp because of how crazy traffic is. Even though California moves fast, at least traffic there is predictable and the traffic rules are enforced so driving is easier."

The American hit the nail on the head: Weak law enforcement is one source of the traffic problems in Indonesia, but which is aggravated by a corrupt system in charge of issuing licenses like vehicle registration documents and driver's licenses, as well as the opening of new routes.

"Traffic problems should have been worse than this," another friend said cynically. "It's incomprehensible why Depok, with a 1.3 million population that drive cars and motorcycles, is allowed a fleet of 14,000 minivans."

The municipality's authorities keep issuing new licenses for minivans -- worth tens of millions of rupiah each -- without taking into consideration either road capacity or market demand. The bottom line is, money for its coffers and officials.

The result is all-too predictable. Minivans stop in "no stopping" zones to pick up passengers and rush along at high speeds with a full "load", just so they can make enough money to pay the vehicle owners at the end of the day.

Traffic lights and stop signs have become toothless traffic enforcers -- and let's not get into the violations committed by drivers of private cars. Discipline has flown out the window along with civil engineering. Really, the difference is only in the value and quality of the vehicles.

So, for the time being, it seems that we Jakartans have no choice but to adapt to the everyday disorderliness -- or stop driving.

-- Ardimas Sasdi