TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsJakarta commuters trade time for savings as fuel prices remain high
As fuel prices remain elevated, many commuters are piecing together longer, more complex journeys while cutting household spending to afford the daily trip to work.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Morning commute: Passengers wait for a Jakarta MRT train on July 3, 2026, at Blok M Station in South Jakarta. (Antara/Fauzan)
By 9 a.m., while much of Greater Jakarta is already settling into the workday, Retna Prameswari is only beginning hers.
The 34-year-old private employee leaves her home in Pamulang, South Tangerang, Banten, for a journey that takes nearly two and a half hours to reach her office in Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) 2 on Jakarta's northern edge.
Her commute is a carefully choreographed chain of transportation modes. She rides her motorcycle to Lebak Bulus Station in South Jakarta, boards the MRT to ASEAN Station, then transfers to Transjakarta route T31 for the final leg to PIK 2.
It is a routine she has refined not for convenience, but for survival.
"If I rode my motorcycle all the way, it would be exhausting," Retna said. "And with fuel prices going up, it would also be much more expensive."
By combining public transportation with a short motorcycle ride, she keeps her daily commuting costs at around Rp 30,000 (US$1.66). Covering the entire 50-kilometer trip on two wheels would cost considerably more, especially after repeated increases in non-subsidized fuel prices this year.
Household budgets have come under growing pressure as fuel prices have fluctuated alongside global oil markets, which have been rattled by the conflict in the Middle East.
