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.