All Roads Lead to Jakarta

After a few hours in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital that is home to 9 million people, you come away with the sense that every inch of the city is constantly in use.

The crowds begin with the ride from Sukarno-Hatta Airport to the downtown. Our cab driver creates a new lane whenever and wherever it suits him, careening out from behind the diesel trucks clogging up traffic. Meanwhile, swarms of motorcycle riders with rather cavalier attitudes toward helmets and turn signals squeeze through improbably small crevices on the margins of the road, unwilling to cede an inch to either the pedestrian on the sidewalk or the bus creeping along in the center divider. Roads in Indonesia are designed for drivers to stay on the left side of the double yellow line, but you wouldn’t necessarily know that just by watching.  

Miraculously, traffic flows without incident or accident, at least for today, but Danielle insists that actuarial probabilities will eventually be brought to Jakarta’s traffic free-for-all. It’s not hard to imagine this happening, especially when you factor in the windowless, golf-cart style taxis with their lawnmower engines hopscotching through traffic to pick up ride. In addition, this nonstop automotive parade is the thick, acrid layer of smog that hangs about Jakarta, especially in the early evenings.

That’s a taste of life on Jakarta’s roads. Tomorrow, we move to the sidewalks – just as congested and requiring perhaps an even defter touch to navigate.