As a rule, walking around the center of Jakarta is neither fun nor practical. With the exception of a few posher areas, sidewalks are crowded with pushcart vendors “warungs”, pot holes, uneven and unpaved roads and sidewalks, and as always as long as it rains, instant flash-floods form, known as “banjir” here, or “floods”, essentially large dirty pools of water slowing traffic to a crawl.

Contrary to the believe, even though drivers honk at pedestrians, drivers do actually slow down for pedestrians and jaywalkers, even then the roads are very dense with vehicles, crossing streets are near suicidal but an essential day of life for all Jakartans. On many busy streets there are no pedestrian crossings, so it's best to latch onto a local and follow them as they weave their way through the endless flow of cars. Muggings do occur, especially on overhead bridges, and can happen even in the daytime.

Because TransJakarta busway bridges provide a somewhat de-facto overhead bridge at most roads, dedicated pedestrian overhead bridges are rare and often in very poor and neglected disrepair, sections of bridges are often missing, corroded sections and fallen branches are typical and steps are uneven at best.

If you use pedestrian bridge, watch out for shaky steps and holes, and motorcycles and bicycles that often use the bridge illegally, it’s probably safer to jaywalk across the road.

On the streets.







Typical sales on the streets by peddlers on foot.


Cigarettes anyone?


Intricate TransJakarta entrance and overhead bridges.




This pitiful sight is abundant at most major transportation nodes.




Warung Kecil's on the street or also known as "lima kaki" or 5-legs.





Yes it can get really loud on the streets, up to 100 decibels with all the honking.


Typical traffic, (view from Transjakarta bridge)



Whilst I’ve written a bit about the transportation in Jakarta, I am not yet fully au fait with the intricacies of Jakartan travel, and have had incidences of having to bail out suddenly only to be stuck in the middle of the road. Most of all, use common sense, just as you would in your own home country. This sums up the end of my fourteen-part mini-series on “Transportation In Jakarta”, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I had writing about it and I hope it helps a little in planning your travels in Jakarta.