Friday, September 09, 2011

Markets in Everything: Jakarta "Traffic Jockeys" Rent Themselves Out as Paid Passengers

PRI -- "With 20 million vehicles on the streets each day, and with far less pavement than in big cities like New York, Singapore and Tokyo, traffic in Jakarta is terrible (see photo above). To reduce the number of cars on the road, lawmakers have designated several main arteries as what they call “Three in One zones.”

During the morning and afternoon rush, you can’t drive there unless you have at least three people on board. That’s why, near the entrances to the zones, men, women and children line up – raising their index finger – offering to rent themselves as "traffic jockeys" to commuters in a hurry."

5 Comments:

At 9/09/2011 9:43 AM, Blogger Colin said...

So, basically, slugging:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging

 
At 9/09/2011 9:50 AM, Blogger Che is dead said...

The fun begins at approximately 2:45.

 
At 9/09/2011 2:33 PM, Blogger Marko said...

Yes, we had slugging around DC when I was there. We need more roads and bridges in the DC area, by the way, as anyone there knows. How is sitting in a traffic jam good for the "environment?"

 
At 9/09/2011 5:04 PM, Blogger Bill M said...

Same thing happens in the east SF bay in the morning. Pick up strangers to cross the Bay Bridge in the HOV lane. They're dropped off at the bus terminal in SF.

 
At 9/09/2011 6:14 PM, Blogger t11s said...

Jakarta traffic Jockeys are not "sluggers", since they don't really want to go where the cars are going. They are only in it for the money..

They are basically human tokens in a congestion pricing scheme.

 

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