The Wall Street Journal features this story about the long overdue plans to build a subway system in Jakarta. The Indonesian capital, which has a population sometimes estimated as high as 15 million, has got to have the worst traffic in all of Asia, hands down. I can attest that KL is bad, but it's nothing in comparison, and even the permanently gridlocked Bangkok now has a faster average traffic speed. I once got into a taxi in morning peak hour Jakarta and the first 2 kilometres took me a whopping 40 minutes.
Of course, Indonesia being Indonesia, they will probably screw up this project somehow. Or it will be successfully built only to be devastated by flooding, a terrorist attack or something like that. I hope for a miracle though.
See also:
Ah, the insanity of driving in Malaysia
Jakarta travel notes, 1 and 2.
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