As Jakarta chokes in the smog, authorities make bigger push for public transport

[JAKARTA] It is no secret that Jakarta is one of the most polluted cities in the world – a problem made worse this year by a combination of a long dry season, heavier road traffic and greater production levels at the country’s coal-fired power plants.

On Monday (Oct 9), the Swiss-based air technology company IQAir named Jakarta – a city of more than 10 million people – as having the third-worst air quality in the world, behind only Lahore in Pakistan and New Delhi in India.

The unhealthy air is largely due to the sheer volume of vehicles on the roads. According to figures from the Ministry of Transportation, some 17.5 million motorcycles, 4.2 million cars and 856,000 trucks travel in the greater Jakarta metropolitan area each day.