sms final update - the complete journey out of town and out to Serpon - about 35 k's - took 4 hours.

Next time some thugs rip off the public purse when road construction is undermined, I hope the judges take this into consideration when sentencing. Not only does corruption hold up development, it causes stress, social upheaval, holds back financial progress, hinders business transactions and keeps people away from their family and friends.

No one should be expected to spend 4 hours each day in a car simply travelling 35k's to and from work.Corruption, bad planning and abismal adherence to traffic regulations is making Jakarta a hell of a place to live.

Passing these monorail skeletons almost every day! I liked the use of them when the Chandra - Bibit issues was at hands - protesters used the bare iron bars to represent jail cells and put a man size cut out of Anggodo in!

Wouldn't that be a great idea - put cutouts of every political figure ever in jail for embezzlement (or still in jail!) into these relics, so at least they get some good use....for years and years to come! Not enough pillars for all these disgraced "beacons" of Indonesian moral in highest circles - my estimate is that up to 4 would have space in a single one!

Ideas, ideas, talks, and more talks.....and No action. This has been going on in the past 7 years and still no sight of it. And now they want to be revive the monorail again. Whatever, it will never be laid out in my life time.

This is exactly the kind of thinking in the political arena that is beyond belief !!!

sms update. My friend has now been in the car for 2.5 hours and traveled 2 k's from his office in Jl. Fachrudin Raya ,Jakarta Pusat heading for Tangerang. Reason? There is evidently a crash scene on the Tangerang toll way and traffic heading that way can't get out of the city.

I think you can safely say that within ten years - a conservative guess - if something original is not done, this city will be unworkable.

Would the authorities ever consider the idea of (Asian 'face' aside) getting help and advice from outside the country? And I don't mean another fact finding trip to Monaco to study public transport. Monaco doesn't have public transport - just plush hotels and casinos. Mmmmm, I wonder why they went there?

Oh for gods sake. The man is an imbecile.

OK - So you have a monorail that goes for a few kilometres... how do you get from home to the start of the rail system?

Anyone that saw the pylons going in rapidly in 2004 will know that these were thrown up quickly just to get something in the ground. Most not looking very structurally sound. Suppose its a good job for a thousand guys with very small hammers to demolish these first?

Something has got to be done. I just got an sms: stuck in traffic for over an hour and traveled 1.7 kilometres.

Monorails certainly work overseas.

Anything will do for this city's unbearable traffic. Be it a monorail system, a cable car system, bike lanes, 3 in 1s, limiting the number of cars and motorcycles being sold, subway system.. Anything will do, for we soon won't be able to leave our house without being stuck in traffic.

Please also keep in mind that the Ministry of Public Works back in the days has done some study on Jakarta Mass Transportation comprehensive and thorough planning, we need to revisit and all government offices need to work together to start seriously implementing the plan.

Need to be firm and put first thing's first!!

It's good to see some action being taken to combat the traffic, but does a monorail really make any sense in Jakarta? Also the area it would cover seems quite small, I don't see how it could improve the overall traffic situation.

At any rate, without proper oversight and transparency, I'm sure history will repeat itself and end up paying 200 billion for a few more useless pylons...