By Newley Purnell, December 16, 2013

Jakarta's traffic is simply brutal: Commuters
spend hours every day stranded in cars and crammed into battered busses
in the congested Indonesian capital, which has about 28 million
residents but no rapid-transit system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhvdImAzWBE
The guides have faced scrutiny, however, following a deadly collision last week between a train and a fuel truck. Some bystanders said the local guides failed to prevent the truck from driving across the tracks. Jakarta’s governor, Joko Widodo, now wants to fine guides at railroad crossings 500,000 rupiah (about $41), and his deputy wants them banished city-wide. "We have to catch them all, and clean this up," said Vice-Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, according to the Straits Times.

Dark thick smoke billows from the fire after a commuter train collided with a truck hauling fuel on the outskirts JakartaAP Photo/Tatan Syuflana
Comparative data about traffic congestion is
scarce, but by any measure Jakarta has it rough. About 10 million
vehicles hit the roads each workday, and commute times are further
worsened by seasonal factors like monsoon rain and workers leaving their
offices at set times during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. As in
other Southeast Asian megacities like Bangkok and Manila, newly affluent
middle-class car buyers are making matters progressively worse: In
2012, average car speeds in the city were just 16 kilometers per hour (about 10 miles per hour), compared to 20 kilometers per hour in 2008.
Jakarta wasn't one of the cities surveyed
for this 2011 IBM study of the world's worst cities for road traffic,
but based on the metrics that included commuting time, time stuck in
traffic, worsening conditions and standstill conditions, it would
probably rank near the top of the list.

IBM
It’s hard to see how blaming the pak ogah or
cracking down on their attempts to impose a bit of order on the chaos
will help ease the severity of Jakarta’s traffic.
"They have been here for the longest time and
there is some sort of informal understanding that they are allowed to
operate," one traffic guide told the Straits Times. "So as long as there is weak enforcement, they will be here."