i, for one, used to think that motorists were the blessed ones: they would inherit jakarta roads. they could still ride on faily freely when roads became congested with cars like tins with sardines. now i am seeing things much worse these days. it's becoming more and more real...
go pass my town, ciputat, where traffic jam smirks in front of the big police office. pick any morning, and you'll witness forlorn police officers blow whistles in vain. they don't have the capacity to excercise their simplest duty. the problem was hard enough for them then. it is harder now as it will stand beyond belief, very soon. the police should be among the first to scream about this monstrosity, but do they ever use this line of thinking?
i've posted articles elsewhere in my old blog on how many new cars are adding everyday in indonesia or in this illfated town alone. have had no wonder why people in rich countries are unwilling to buy personal cars. they don't really them; what for? car producing countries blabber on the need to construct more roads, and more freeways. this won't help. more toll roads go in harmony only with their own interest, so that they can export their cars. with our needs for basic needs?
mainstream economists take the growing number of vehicles available within in country as an economic indicator. if anything, it is to be used as an indicator of folly of a government unable to provide basic transport infrastructure to its people.
welfare has been insufficiently measured by gross domestic products. its calculation should take into account how much time one needs to travel from one's home to office and back home again.
does it matter what we drive or what we ride on? one day the city traffic will find us helplessly paralyzed, totally immobilized.
