Jakarta Drivers: Can They Drive?

Bumper to bumper situation (picture taken from The Jakarta Post)

Some people say that if you can survive driving in Jakarta, you can drive anywhere.   Well, if you drive like Jakartans in Los Angeles, you definitely will get shot at some point.  Why?

Because, the more I watch people drive here, the more I keep wondering, how on earth did they get their licenses?  It seems like there are no rules, let alone manners.   The more I look at drivers of motor vehicles in Jakarta, the more I wonder how lots of patients we have to deal with driving back and forth to and from work.

Lets start with what usually happens with my daily life on the road.  I like leaving home very early to avoid traffic and if I leave by 6:15 am, I can reach work in 20 minutes, while if I leave past that, even if it is only 5 minutes later, the traffic is so much different.  After using Jalan Pangeran Antasari for almost 3 years, I now know at which part of the road I must stay left, or move to the right lane.

First, the buses, especially the Kopajas.  These guys definitely know that they are much bigger than compact cars so they obviously can switch lanes as they please.  They stop almost every minute to drop or pick up passengers, they don’t give a sign when they make turns or switch lanes.  Often they stop in the middle of the street so both lanes cannot proceed.  For some reason, I always tell myself, “Oh well, they are buses” and get used to it (I have to, or else I will be extremely depressed for the rest of the day).

The other thing that I often wonder is, do people know about signals?  The light that drivers turns on when they are about to make turns?   Here is an example.  I never fail to give signs.  I turn my signal light to the right when I was about to turn right.  But all of a sudden, there is a motorcycle or a car that cuts you from your right.  I mean, how stupid is that?  Don’t they know that if the person in front of them turns the signal, they should not cut from that direction and they are supposed to slow down?

Talking about people that do not pay attention to the signals given, I start to doubt if they know what signals are for.  Some people just don’t bother signaling when they are making turns.  Some private cars do that, but most of all they are bus drivers and bajaj drivers.  Sometimes they are at the right lane when they want to turn left without signals, or giving left turn signals when they don’t want to turn.   Often buses do this, but I have seen some private cars do this, too.   What are in their minds?

Almost in all cases of driving, especially on toll roads, I find that people have no concept that left lane is for slower cars, right lane is for faster cars or for cutting of the car in front.  I have seen older, slower cars, or big trucks drive on the right lane.  OK, maybe the driver is enjoying the music, so lets try to give them the beam light.  Hey, s/he still doesn’t shift to the left lane.  Then you honk.  Nope, they seem to be happy annoying me.   Don’t they know when they are slower, give way to the faster?

Sometimes I think Jakarta drives cannot think one step ahead.  For example, when there is traffic jam and there is this annoying car that blocks your way,  because he wants to drive opposite your direction but that lane is stuck with traffic.  Or, in a junction, where a car just stops in the middle of the junction, causing traffic from his right or left to not able to move even though the light is green for them.  If you do this in Singapore (stopping in the middle of the junction when the light is red), you will get fined big time.  Just because they are inconsiderate, impatient or purely brainless?  How many times do you see this happening?

What makes me nervous are motorbikes.  There are more and more motorbikes in Jakarta for

Sidewalks for motorbikes or pedestrians?

economic reasons.  But, sorry to say, motorbikers have no manners, no brains and no common sense when it comes to driving in Jakarta.  How many times do you see motorcycles climb to the sidewalks during traffic?  And the ironic thing is, nobody does anything.  The police sometimes just watch this, as if it is alright.

Have you ever experienced at the red light, when you are properly stopping behind the white line and these motorbikes all of a sudden appear in front of you?  Some of them even squeeze through the narrow space between cars, often smash your mirror or scratch your car.

Photo by Priyo Tri Handoyo

The same as when there are more than two people on the motorbike.  Sometimes, it is like watching acrobatic show; one big happy family on one motorbike.  I sometimes feel scared when seeing a toddler, almost falling asleep, on the motorbike   Or a child, standing in the front of the motor bebek, making the father imbalanced.  Now, how could the driver react fast should there something happens?

Now, you rarely see a STOP sign at a junction, but when you see it, you rarely see that these people really stop.  As if STOP stands for Slightly Tap On Pedal.

Last but not least, this is the proof that people, including the ‘big guys’ don’t understand about the use of Hazard Light.  The Hazard Light is on to let other drivers know that the car is NOT moving.  This is an international rule.  For some reason, not only in Jakarta, people turn on their hazard lights when they are moving.  Sometimes when it is a group of cars (like a parade, or a group of bride and groom family, in the middle of heavy rain, etc).  If I turn on the hazard light when I’m in motion somewhere in USA or Europe, I will definitely be stopped by the police.  In a way, it is dangerous.

In contrary, when it is raining, I think we should turn on the headlights.  Well, some motorbikes don’t have the lights on when they are driving at night.  Bajajs are hillarious, the light, if any is like probably 5 watts lighbulb.

I think not everybody deserves a driving license in Jakarta.