Indonesia's traffic nightmare goes from bad to even worse

They also cost lives.

“I once had a critical patient who died because we got stuck in traffic,” ambulance driver Hasanudin said. “But the family wasn't angry -- there's nothing they can do about the traffic.”

The political elite doesn't seem too worried either -- they move around the city escorted by traffic-clearing police with sirens blaring.

Better still, the super rich hire helicopter taxis to fly from meeting to meeting.

“It's no longer a luxury but more of a necessity for business people,” said Maria Goretti Lioba, marketing manager for helicopter taxi service Air Pacific.

The company operates two helicopters and carries 50 passengers a month. “Our business is thriving,” Lioba said.

An initial plan to expand Jakarta's colonial-era rail network by adding an inner-city skyrail has stalled due to mismanagement and funding problems.

Headless concrete pillars for the skyrail still adorn parts of the city, serving only as giant monuments to decades of failed planning and short-sightedness.

Construction of the MRT — a single 14.5-kilometre (nine-mile) line from the densely populated south to the center of the city — will begin in 2011. The Japan-backed project is scheduled to cost 1.5 billion dollars.

Manpalagupta Sitorus, spokesman for MRT Jakarta company which is owned by Jakarta province, said the MRT would carry 400,000 passengers a day by 2020.

“The main idea of having MRT is to change people's habits from using private vehicles to using mass public transport,” he said.

But the MRT alone will not be enough to end Jakarta's traffic nightmare, he said.

“Supporting policies such as limiting the inflow of private vehicles are still needed to slash congestion,” he said.

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