Originally Posted by
BuildingMyBento
Don't see the point in Uber, since you're all sitting in the same traffic. Plenty of taxis are around, and those don't require a mobile phone. (Wasn't there a bit of a protest last week on Thamrin about Uber and that ilk?)
OK, I'm fortunate enough to have "free" data while I'm in Jakarta, so Uber is easy. The joys of the using it are well-rehearsed: cash-free, easily called and tracked and a very responsive team to call on if things go wrong: it's also a bit cheaper than Bluebird.
There are some difficulties - I still don't understand how to meet up with drivers at CGK, and it's not always easy at malls (I think Uber drivers worry about hostility from drivers of regular taxis).
Also, while regular taxis are excused from complying with minimum occupancy rules at rush hours, Uber cars (as private vehicles) are not. The alternative is picking up "jockeys", face a fine, or trust the driver to find his way through sneaky short-cuts.
There are protests everywhere about Uber
et al - though it's generally not the public who are making the fuss
Originally Posted by
BuildingMyBento
Didn't know about the construction by Monas (was there last June...though I suppose they are actually doing something about the mass transit. Finally.) Anyway, are you saying that Transjakarta has that inconvenient a detour on the Fatahillah-Blok M route?
The new metro system was given the go-ahead quite a few years' back. Basically it's in two parts with the north-south one under construction. This will go from Lebak Bulus to Bundaran HI, then on to Block M and beyond: so more or less taking over the Transjakarta Koridor l between Kota and Block M.
Construction work has royally F'd up traffic on the Thamrin/Sudirman axis, and meant the closure of a couple of busway stops, made life difficult accessing some others.
The second East-West metro will be very much longer, but I think it's not yet off the ground, as it were.