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Hogwash and roadhogs


Hogwash is the Page 5 Jakarta Post story proclaiming that lumbering trucks hold up turnpike traffic.

Roadhogs are what the Jakarta Post should be blaming instead for the jams in the turnpikes.

Anyone who has driven on Jakarta’s turnpikes knows that the real cause of congestion is not so much trucks that travel slowly but because of trucks and other vehicles that hog the road because of a lack of discipline.

Travel on th turnpike and you will see cars, vans and trucks lumbering along but hoging the right lanes so that no one can pass. Flash your headlights at them and it is to no avail. Ditto honking. The only solution, if you want to overtake them, is to take the left lane or the emergency lane.

This is stupid and dangerous and begs the question of who should have responsibility for educating Indonesian drivers on how to drive properly by keeping to the left lane unless overtaking. The police comes to mind. But they are the same guys who close one eye and shut the other when angkot stop in the middle of the road to pick up or let down passengers.

The only time the police are interested to stop anyone is when they have done something wrong. Then they are hit for a bribe. The police, nor for that matte are any other government officials, are interested in instilling road discipline. That is why we have jams all over the city.

So why doesn’t the Jakarta Post tckle the real issue of the police’s neglect of its duties as an enforcement agency, rather than blame the turnpike jams on the poor truckies?

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2 responses to “Hogwash and roadhogs”

  1. Rusdy Avatar
    Rusdy

    Hmmm… I guess someone (the government??) have to take the initiative to solve this chicken-and-egg-problem?

    I mean, everyone (hopefully) knows the problem with the Jakarta’s traffic upto a certain extent IS the road’s user themselves. From ‘angkot’ that stops where ever they want, motorcycles (& cars) not driving INSIDE the lane, and the list goes on and on and on.

    So, if one driver out there is somehow decided to be discipline, it won’t take long for him/her to follow suit with the rest of the undisciplined crowd. As there is no motivation or what so ever to be discipline on the road 😦

    PS: If you see the developed world with their traffic from the sky (i.e. Google Earth), you’ll be amazed they actually have MORE cars on the road than Jakarta, but the traffic flows. Then, you look at Jakarta, you see these funny cars in the ‘random’ pattern on the road, because they don’t (never) drive inside the lane.

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  2. Food for thought Avatar
    Food for thought

    Ong,
    Agreed 100%. It all boils down to awareness and education, the ‘pemerintah’ needs a serious overhaul in all aspects of governing and it will eventually trickles down to the road users. But I reckon the main culprits are drivers and operators from the chain of public transport chasing for their daily ‘setoran’.
    Meantime, we have to live by it….for a long time to come.

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