Worst of Jakarta

Todd: Okay, Lia, you said that in your city Jakarta, one thing that is not good is the pickpockets. Is there anything else that maybe is not so good about Jakarta?

Lia: I would say the traffic jam is such a mess in Jakarta. There are so many cars, so many other public transportation but the road is still the same so it's kind of difficult. And also, the behavior of the drivers themselves is not that good. They don't follow the rules. They usually just pass the traffic light. So it's really bad, the traffic jams in Jakarta. So that's why a lot of people come from the sides, in the suburbs near Jakarta. If they work in Jakarta in the downtown so they have to wake up like 5:00 in the morning or 4:00 in the morning and go to the street and spend two to three hours to reach their work or school. So traffic jams really are such a waste of time.

Todd: Wow, that's terrible!

Lia: Yes, it's very terrible.

Todd: So is the government trying to do anything like build more roads or build public transportation?

Lia: They try to solve it by one type of bus what I call "TransJakarta", but still TransJakarta is also controversial because some people said because that bus has special routes so for example if you have three lanes for the cars then one lane is for that special bus, so the others have to go for the other two routes, so the street becomes narrower because of TransJakarta, but actually the government tries to solve that problem by that kind of means.

Todd: Wow. So is there anything else that is a problem in your city?

Lia: I would say the infrastructure is actually not good... which the river and the drainage system basically is not that good. We just build and build all the new buildings without thinking about the infrastructure. And we have so many rubbish in the river that's why the water never flows I guess. Yeah so, we have a lot of rubbish, a lot of garbage in the river, the infrastructure is not good, that's why we have floods these days. We have annual floods these days, big floods in Jakarta every February.

Todd: Oh, that's terrible.

Lia: Yes.

Todd: Anyway, thanks a lot Lia.

Lia: Your welcome.