Jakarta's 'jockeys' Click to play video

A ticket to ride for Jakarta's congestion jockeys

Constant and worsening traffic jams in Indonesia's capital city have helped establish a new industry for the poor.

JAKARTA: A young woman, carrying her infant son in a sling around her neck, stands in the shadows of a decaying concrete pylon, her hand extended in the hope that a passing motorist will pick her up.

Maya Sari, 23, and one-year-old Muhammad are ''jockeys''. Jakarta motorists pay to carry them in peak hour traffic, because to legally travel on the city's best roads, cars need three occupants. Babies count, and they cost less to hire than an adult, so on feeder roads all over the city, women and their young children stand touting for business. One ride with them costs the driver about 20,000 rupiah, or $2.15.

As Jakarta's population grows in wealth, 565 more cars and 3006 more motorbikes clog its roads every day. According to one official report, this city with a daytime population of 11 million is just nine years away from being gridlocked. When it rains and the roads flood, many areas are there already.

There is no quick fix. Jakarta's authorities introduced the ''three-in-one'' rule to reduce the number of cars, but it has only succeeded in creating entrepreneurs like Maya.

She brings Muhammad on the train to Jakarta twice a day from her village of Parung Panjang to stand with dozens of others in both peak hours among the exhaust fumes and the noise, to ride in the vehicles of strangers. Her nine hour day on the roadside provides her family's only income and with five mouths to feed, they are glad to have it.

''With a child it's very difficult to find a job,'' she says. ''This is the only one I can do and keep my child with me.''

The huge concrete pylons are testament to a transport failure of a different sort. They were built to carry a monorail to augment the city's desperately inadequate public transport system. But it was abandoned without explanation in 2004. The steel reinforcing rods are rusting and all the pylons carry now is advertising.

There are signs of inadequate infrastructure countrywide. Trucks regularly park in line for hours, even days, at Merak Port on the western tip of Java, waiting to cross the Sunda Strait.

Ferries provide the only transport between the two most populous islands, Java and Sumatra and bad weather often slows the service or even halts it entirely. A feasibility study for a 30 kilometre bridge between the islands was announced this week. But long-planned projects often fail to materialise here.

A Malaysian investor was last month forced to cancel plans to build a hydro-electricity plant in West Kalimantan because the surrounding roads were not up to the construction task.

Social infrastructure, too, is lacking. The CIA World Fact Book puts Indonesia near the bottom of global rankings for access to hospital beds, with just 0.6 beds per 1000 population compared to 3.82 in Australia, and it spends 2.8 per cent of GDP on education, compared to Australia's 4.5 per cent.

Indonesia's economy should be in the ''sweet spot''Dr Basri, a consultant and government adviser says. But without huge investments in infrastructure, it will miss the opportunities that a young population and bullish investors offer.

National and local governments appear to have heeded the message. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has made spending on infrastructure development a top priority, promising to spend $160billion by 2015, with almost half coming from private companies through partnerships.

But corruption, red tape, problems with land acquisition and uncertain public finances often thwart projects before the foundations are even laid.

''The policy decisions are fine, it's the implementation that can be a problem,'' Dr Basri says.

The government last week cancelled a planned $1.3billion public-private partnership to upgrade the country's biggest port - the colonial-era Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta. Companies that had tendered for the work were left in limbo after authorities announced they could not afford the $389 million required for access roads and bridges.

None of this surprises the 11 million Indonesians who live in and around the capital. Ratna Utami, 32, who works in the city and lives in middle class Depok, in West Java, must leave at 5.30am to catch a bus if she hopes to be at the office by nine. A few minutes late leaving home and it ''would be a blessing'' to make the office by 10am. Home time is 12 hours later, 10pm.

For commuters there are few alternatives to the private car or the sea of motorbikes. Designated bus lanes have limited success in speeding up a trip as motorists illegally drive in these lanes if they think they will get away with it.

The trains are so crowded that people resort to riding on the roof, prompting the state rail company to hang large concrete balls from overpasses to stop them.

Even walking is hazardous. Pedestrians must first find a footpath - not so easy on Jakarta's streets - then it's a question of dodging huge, open drainage holes, uneven surfaces and the motorbike riders who routinely use them to beat the traffic. The brave souls from pedestrian lobby group Koalisi Pejalan Kaki are trying to reclaim the footpaths; they often lie down in front of the motorbikes to make their point. ''I've been called crazy and yelled at and argued with,'' activist Anthony Ladjar says, ''but the pedestrians have rights for safety.''

The government is also talking up its plan for a new above-and-below ground rail system, Jakarta MRT [mass rapid transport] that when completed would be 111kilometres long and carry up to 960,000 commuters a day.

Jakarta's governor, Fauzi Bowo, known as ''Foke,'' told the Herald the idea for MRT had been around for 20 years, but ''it was hindered by budget limitations'', particularly to the regional budget. But now it is a priority and construction is due to start in September.

But Jakartans are sceptical. ''I've been living in Jakarta for over 30 years,'' says a Twitter-based pedestrian activist Glenn Marsilim, who posts as @JalanKaki. ''I try to be optimistic. But sometimes it's hard.''