Carpool Jockeys

There are young women and men standing by the busy streets of Jakarta, Indonesia, waiting for drivers to pick them up for $1. Prostitutes? Nay, they are car jockeys who help car owners beat the congested city's carpooling laws:

When this city of epic traffic jams started carpooling a while back, it inadvertently gave birth to an entirely new profession: jockey.

For less than a dollar, car owners hire one or two jockeys to gain access to stretches of the city’s “3 in 1,” high-occupancy lanes. The jockey is essentially an extra passenger who helps commuters circumvent carpooling rules, making the ride into central Jakarta slightly less slow.

Norimitsu Onishi of The New York Times' Jakarta Journal has the story: Link (Photo: Ed Wray for the New York Times)


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The difference between the US and Indonesian riders is that in Indonesia the riders are only going along for the money and not because they need a ride.
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Wow! In Houston we don't charge anything. Since our bus system is connected to and uses the carpool lanes, we just pick people up at the metro stations and head downtown (since all of our park and rides head downtown). On the way home we stop at the bus routes along this one central street and ask who wants to get to our part of town. It's pretty efficient actually. And free. Plus you meet interesting people since it's always business men and women.
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