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Jakarta Post

Car-crazy Jakarta: A city on the edge

Some people have hobbies that border on obsessions, and so their hobbies practically become their lives

The Jakarta Post
Tue, June 30, 2009

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Car-crazy Jakarta: A city on the edge

Some people have hobbies that border on obsessions, and so their hobbies practically become their lives. A friend has an obsession with all things motoring, but in particular the four-wheeled variety. His life revolves around his love of his car and cars that he has either had or aspires to have one day.

In a recent conversation, he expressed his belief that "you are what you drive". In an expression paralleling comments such as "You are what you eat" and "You are what you read", he was proposing that in his mind, people's characters can be determined from the cars they drive.

Of course, this proposition works on the supposition that people even drive a car in the first place, but it does seem a tenuous proposition at best. Certain cars do, though, seem to fit this suggestion. A sporty vehicle that has been extensively customized will often be driven by a young man wishing to make an impression and live life fast.

But what of a four-wheel-drive pickup truck driven by a seemingly timid middle-aged woman wearing a headscarf? The impression of the vehicle might suggest the driver would be a big bearded macho man, not a diminutive little lady in her mid to late forties.

The "you are what you drive" hypothesis may not always work then, but what about changing the hypothesis just slightly to read "You are how you drive"? In other words, the way people drive can reveal what kind of character they may have.

There may be some truth in this as, after all, car drivers have to be considerate of other road users and so how they make allowances for other people on the roads can be suggestive of how they conduct themselves more generally. If this is so, then it may be an unfortunate reflection of many people in Jakarta.

Many road users in Jakarta seem to have no consideration for others on the road at all and this might suggest that people here are mean-spirited, selfish and self-centered and far too arrogant and ignorant of others to be considered nice people.

Driving in Jakarta is nothing short of chaotic, thanks to the huge quantity of people using the roads, the often terrible condition of the roads and the vast variety of vehicles there are. All of this chaos is only made worse by drivers who are reckless and dismissive of other road users.

There are drivers that seem utterly oblivious to there being anybody else on the roads except themselves. Perhaps they are too comfortable in the enclosed air-conditioned capsule that is their vehicle, as they listen to pumped-up stereophonic music or even watch small video screens, to pay any attention or care about anyone else on the roads.

Drivers often perform the most ridiculous, and dangerous, of maneuvers, but little or nothing can seemingly be done to draw their attention to the fact they are being foolish and dangerous. Recently, a driver was seen to quite suddenly make the decision to turn right at a junction. Nothing too wrong with this, as a right turn was possible and permitted.

The problem was that he decided to make this right turn from the furthest left-hand lane of four lanes of traffic. In other words, he was cutting across three lanes of traffic, totally blocking these three other lanes as he did so and all of this was being done with absolutely no indication (whether via indicators or lowering a window and waving an arm) of his intention to make this appalling maneuver.

All three lanes of traffic that he was cutting across had vehicles in them that were soon blasting their horns at this wayward driver; but he was utterly ignoring them. What made this worse was that at the same junction there was a traffic policeman who did absolutely nothing to either alleviate the congestion being caused or reprimand the wayward driver.

It is consistently amazing how forgiving motorists in Jakarta may be. Silly maneuvers are often tolerated and impolite sudden lane changes are put up with. It might then be said in the context of the "you are how you drive" theory that people in Jakarta are laid-back, easygoing and forgiving, but this may change.

One wonders what might happen in Jakarta if people catch the disease of road rage. Occasionally there are signs of this odd phenomena emerging in Jakarta. Recently, two cars came close to colliding as they traveled in the same direction. No damage was done to either vehicle but at the next junction an ugly scene was witnessed.

The passenger of one vehicle had lowered his window and was aggressively shaking his fist and literally screaming at the driver of the other vehicle. That driver was about to step out of his car to remonstrate with this passenger, but fortunately the traffic eased and both vehicles were forced to drive on.

It is not hard to imagine an ugly fight developing had the traffic not moved on in time. Let us hope that how you drive will not come to influence and change who you are. Indonesian people are, typically, friendly and outgoing, but if we are not too careful, careless, reckless and inconsiderate antics on the roads of Jakarta may create significant changes in the character-traits of people.

- Simon Marcus Gower

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