Heavy rain causes severe traffic jams

Heavy rain causes severe traffic jams

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Pouring rain caused not only floods, but also severe traffic jams
all over the city, bringing misery to motorists who were stuck
for hours in the congestion.

Jakartans are used to traffic jams, which occur daily in
certain places. But what happened on Tuesday was more than most
were used to enduring. There were traffic jams in almost all
parts of the city -- even areas not usually prone to flood.

Adi Rajasa, an employee of a private company on Jl. Daan
Mogot, West Jakarta, said he was trapped in heavy traffic from
Jl. Daan Mogot, which was inundated by water, to the Glodok area. "It's really annoying,S he said, RI spent three hours on
the route, while usually only takes 20 minutes."

Another employee of a company on Jl. Kuningan, South
Jakarta, complained that in the morning, it took her two and a
half hours from her house in the Cilandak area, South Jakarta, to
reach her office, though the roads were not flooded.

"The congestion was worse where several policemen blocked
the road to make way for a group of government officialsU cars,"
Anita said.

To get home, she also had to struggle in massive traffic
jams.

"I left the office at 4:30 p.m. Now, itUs been 45 minutes
and I am still stuck on Jl. Mampang Prapatan (which is less than
three kilometers away). I donUt know what time I will arrive
home," she said desperately. She eventually arrived home at 7:30
p.m.

Traffic jams occured not only during rush hours. From in
the morning until late at night, thousands of private cars and
public transportation vehicles had to crawl along the streets,
including main thoroughfares such as Jl. Sudirman, Jl. Thamrin,
Jl. Gatot Subroto. Motorists also had to wait for quite a long
time before they could pass the Semanggi toll gates. But the
traffic on the toll road was no better.

In North Jakarta, Hesti, who works for a play group in
Podomoro, Sunter, grumbled that the heavy down pour had made her
late for work because she could not find any public
transportation in her neighborhood.

"I left my home in Plumpang, Tanjung Priok, at 7 a.m. and
it was not until at 8:30 a.m. that I got a bus," she said.

According to her, torrential rains had caused Sunter
river to overflow its banks and inundate streets along the river
up to her knees.

No public vehicles were seen passing the streets due to
the flooding, she said. Therefore, she had to go on foot to the
main highway to catch a bus.

Thousands of people throughout Jakarta were stranded on
the streets waiting for public transportation later in the
evening.

Tuesday was also a really bad day for public
transportation drivers as they earned far less money than usual.

"There are traffic jams everywhere. By this time of day,
I would usually have earned about Rp 100,000, but now, I only
have Rp 40,000," Martius, a taxi driver, said in a high tone.