For the past two days, this is what happened in the little (or maybe not so little) town that I live in. Rain, flood and traffic make a lethal combination in my city. It took people at least 3 hours to get home. Some even took 8 hours to get home from work.
And the disastrous condition continues today. It started raining at midday and I was already worried. I was very lucky yesterday because I stayed home all day yesterday, I was on leave and didn't go to work. But today, it took me 3 hours to get home, from a meeting place that normally takes around 40 - 60 minutes, even with normal rush hour traffic. The traffic started to move very slowly to a stopping point in one area, then it started to move slowly again. We had to cross the normally one way road, in order to reach home early. Otherwise it may take another hour for me to reach home.
As I sit quietly in the car, I start to get very frustrated with the road condition in Jakarta. Every time it rains a little, traffic usually gets worse. So you can imagine if it rains really heavy for more than 1 hour, traffic will be ridiculous here. People just don't follow traffic rules anymore, everyone wants to rush home and is very impatient, which I think is making the traffic worse, instead of better.
It's also common to see accident during these traffic condition. Imagine that!! Accidents when you can hardly move an inch between cars!! That's how crazy people in Jakarta is!!! If the this situation is not improved, we won't even be able to get anywhere under 1 hour within Jakarta next year.