Trial may be end of ride for Jakarta's 'jockeys'

It could be the end of the road for one of the few beneficiaries of Jakarta's traffic-snarled streets – paid hitchhikers known as "jockeys" – with the capital to trial overturning its policy restricting main roads during peak hours to cars with at least three people.

Fitri Andayani working as a "jockey" in Jakarta on Wednesday. Photo: Tatan Syuflana

"Jockeys" for hire in Jakarta. Photo: Tatan Syuflana

Yanti offering her services as a "jockey" to a Jakarta driver. Photo: Tatan Syuflana

Yanti, carrying her child, seeking work as a "jockey" in Jakarta on Wednesday. Photo: Tatan Syuflana

Yanti, carrying her child, and Fitri Andayani, in pink, offer their services as "jockeys" for Jakarta motorists. Photo: Tatan Syuflana

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Jakarta: It could be the end of the road for one of the few beneficiaries of Jakarta's traffic-snarled streets – paid hitchhikers known as "jockeys" – with the capital to trial overturning its three-people-to-a-car policy.

Twenty-four years ago, Jakarta introduced a rule banning cars with fewer than three occupants from using main roads during peak hours.

The policy aimed to ease the the city's notorious traffic congestion.

However an unanticipated side effect was a booming black economy for some of the capital's poorest denizens.

Enterprising "jockeys" line the streets feeding onto main roads, offering their bums on seats for a small fee – about $2 – to commuters who need to make up car numbers.

Many jockeys carry babies because they count as an additional passenger.

The practice is not legal – jockeys are regularly nabbed in police stings and taken to prison-like social rehabilitation centres and drivers can be fined – but it is part of the daily fabric of this heaving, clogged metropolis.

But after a couple of jockeys were arrested for allegedly sedating their six-month-old baby while they worked, Jakarta's decisive governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama called for an end to the "three-in-one" policy.

"Personally, I want [it] gone because there's no effect whatsoever [on traffic]. [Jockeys] with babies [can bypass the regulation] and to keep the babies from crying they are drugged. I would rather sit in traffic than endanger these children," Mr Basuki was quoted saying in the Jakarta Globe newspaper.

Within days, Jakarta's Transportation Department announced a week-long trial would begin on April 5, lifting the ban on cars with fewer than three occupants.

But there are grave concerns this will create gridlock in a city that already has the worst traffic in the world according to last year's Castrol Magnatec Stop-Start Index.

The index, which used GPS data to calculate the frequency of stop-start driving, found that more than a quarter of the travel time of an average driver in Jakarta is spent idling.

Jakarta Transportation Council secretary David Tjahjana​ admitted a stakeholder meeting held on Thursday was "quite pessimistic" about the trial to end the three-in-one rule. "The Jakarta traffic police told the meeting that there's nothing much they can do about the traffic. The only thing they can do is engineer the traffic lights," he said. "Obviously it will be quite a problem."

Ellen Tangkudung​, a transport expert from the University of Indonesia, said the best way to address traffic congestion is to implement an electronic road pricing (ERP) scheme and encourage people to use public transport.

However the tender is yet to be called for a toll scheme planned for Jakarta's main roads, where cars would pay to use certain streets using an on-board unit.

And an above and below ground rail system, known as MRT (mass rapid transit) is not scheduled to begin operating until early 2019.

However the Jakarta administration has promised to boost its fleet of Transjakarta buses by 600 – still a small number given the capital's population of almost 10 million.

Achmad Izzul Waro from the Jakarta Transportation Council estimates traffic congestion will increase by 30 per cent if the three-in-one rule is scrapped, adding 30 minutes to a 100-minute commute.

"It will happen especially in the first days because people will be excited that now they can drive alone in the streets without jockeys," he told Fairfax Media.

Yanti, who carries her three-year-old in a sling, is paid 30,000 rupiah (about $3) per ride, a dollar more than if she was travelling solo.

She earns about $12 a day. "It's difficult if [the three-in-one policy] is scrapped. I do it to help the household, helping my husband," said Yanti, who didn't know any jockeys who sedated their children. "I shudder, I didn't know babies could be put on drugs," she added.

Like many Indonesians, she is stoic. If the trial becomes permanent, Yanti will use the money she has saved working as a jockey to start a new enterprise. "Perhaps I'll do a little business selling kids food like crackers, candies and ice-cream."

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The story Trial may be end of ride for Jakarta's 'jockeys' first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

Source: Trial may be end of ride for Jakarta's 'jockeys'