Jockeys and Traffic and Poor Urban Planning, oh MY!

When leaving work every evening this week, I noticed a large number of locals standing on the sides of the street waving their fingers around. Not doing much, just standing and waving. Some women with babies holding up 2 fingers, some young men holding up 1. I asked my apartment agent about them the next day.

"They're Jockeys," she replied.

"They ride with you during rush hour so you can ride in the 3 in 1."

This week I learned about Jockeys - not the oddly named undershorts, nor the compact sized horse racers but rather, Indonesian locals who hop into your car to make it a "High Occupancy Vehicle" in order to ride in the "3 in 1" lanes. Wahhh? Let me explain...

As I mentioned before, traffic in Jakarta is horrendous and is the result of explosive business growth following Indonesia's newly gained independence, and extremely poor urban planning. Prior to Jakarta's independence and transformation into the sprawling metropolis it is today, it was a network of "kampungs" small villages consisting of small homes and shops.

As businesses flourished in Jakarta, building development was virtually unrestricted, the kampungs joined in on the sprawl but there was no planning for the influx of new traffic, both vehicle and pedestrian. In a nutshell, buildings and houses came first and roads were an after thought.

The result now, is a few major highways (that are jammed with cars, taxi's, buses, and motorbikes) and a network of tiny side roads throughout the kampungs and behind the larger buildings and businesses. The major highways of course were also not planned properly for traffic flow and are slam packed with the ~1.5M daily commuters. In an attempt to control traffic, these highways are designated "3 in 1" lanes during the traffic commuting hours. It's like carpool, but imagine you can't get on any of the major freeways unless you are in a car pool lane. Your only option is to snake through the kampungs which could add up to hours to your commute. Inadvertently, this has spawned a culture of traffic jockeys.

Jockeys mainly consist of local Indonesians representative of the lower-middle class (keep in mind $2/day per person is considered middle class for some perspective). They dress nicely, and locate themselves near the entryways to the 3 in 1 lanes, next to big businesses where wealthy folks have nice cars and can afford to pay the standard 1 - 2 US dollars per trip. For some, it's their only source of income and considered a great unofficial occupation. They sit in air conditioned cars, listen to the radio for 30 - 60 minutes and get some easy money. Having a Jockey can cut your commute down by hours simply by allowing you to ride in the 3 in 1 lanes.

Appealing isn't it? Take a look at my video below. It's just a snippet of my morning commute which is less than 1.5 miles from my temporary housing.  These are the weaving kampung roads and it's relatively early. Imagine trying to go 5 miles in this both ways in rush hour traffic. 45 minutes to 2 hours easy. It's no wonder Jockeys have created a market here in Jakarta: