JAKARTA TRAFFIC, out on a lunch date

I had a lunch appointment in Menteng with an old friend and colleague. Hadn't been in that part of Jakarta for quite some time and I estimated that I would reach my destination in just over 30 minutes. It took me 50, as from home in South Jakarta to the Central Jakarta restaurant I met nothing but traffic jams.

We arranged to meet in Pisa Restaurant, behind St. Theresia church, had a very pleasant lunch and had much to talk about as we hadn't met for over a year. Talking and eating—I had a surprisingly good pizza al funghi—and finishing with a very nice strong black coffee, took about one and half hour…

It is now just after 4 PM and I spent two hours driving—crawling, that is—home. From the high point on the bridge at the Menteng side of Rasuna Said I saw the four lanes in my direction solidly packed with stationary cars, and so were the four oncoming lanes! What a pity I didn't think of recording it on my mobile.

Over the past ten years the number of vehicles has increased by an average of 10% per year. The total length of roads in Jakarta has, however, increased by less than a percentage point. No wonder therefore that traffic has become the major bottleneck it now is.

I do believe that even under these adverse conditions traffic flows could be improved. Indonesia, like its neighbours Singapore and Malaysia, drives on the left, as decreed by Lieutenant-Governor Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, 1811-1815, who abhorred the chaotic traffic and obvious lack of rules he observed on arrival.

Present day traffic regulators do appear to suffer from an inane aversion to right-turns.

Cars and motorcycles are directed to continue till they come to a place (often quite far) where a U-turn is allowed. All those who want turn right are thus kept on the road considerably longer than needed, adding to traffic volume.

The limitation in road kilometres is further aggravated by cars parked on the road, or sellers setting up "shop" on the side of the road and claiming at least one lane.

Maybe Raffle's four years were insufficient to instill a regulated traffic sense. And the returning Dutch colonial government does not seem to have tried very hard.