we

We too are part of the traffic.

school ride

Braving the chaotic traffic and hazardous pollution, a mother is taking her children to school on a motorbike. School bus is non-existent in this city, neither is a working mass transportation system.

traffic like dancing

If traffic was a dance, it must be a delicate one.

privileges

In a country with no effective law enforcement, everybody can have their own privileges. The president, the ministers, and the legislators are free to determine how much public money they will get (in terms of salaries and other facilities: luxury cars, houses, etc.) withouth much concern of the people's poverty. The judges, attorneys/public prosecutors, and the police are free to determine how much money they can extort from the legal cases they are handling. And once one is convicted of a crime and sent to jail (at a bargained sentence), he/she can buy his/her jail privileges if he/she can afford the prices set by the wardens.

Why should becak (pedicabs) not have their own privileges, then?

street division

How is the street divided?

How about one third for parking, one third for street vendors, and only the remaining one third for the traffic? Pedestrians can always conveniently go in between those three divisions anyway as the sidewalk is also reserved for street vendors.

invisible #4

By law, they can't stop there! But street markings and signs are invisible in this city. Thanks to inconsistent law enforcement and the bribes you can pay the police officers if you should ever get caught.

invisible #3

By law, they are supposed to stop behind the line. In a city (and country) where there is no effective law enforcement, however, everything can be chaotic. The street (and this kind of scene repeated all over the place) is only a tiny reflection of it.

blessing in a traffic congestion

For most people, traffic congestion is annoying and frustrating. For some, it's a blessing.

These street vendors were swiftly moving among cars and buses selling foods and drinks to drivers and passangers trapped in a traffic congestion at Padalarang toll exit.

symbiosis

A city is an ecosystem. In it are various organisms living off and from one another. And here is an example:

A group of street musicians playing their music for tips to the passangers of angkot stopping at the traffic stop of Parapatan Lima. Two minutes is all it takes for them to entertain their audience and get the tip.

I took the photo a couple of years ago. But nothing has changed since then. So, it's still very much a picture of Bandung's street today.

go against

A becak (pedicab) is going against the one-way traffic on Jalan Astana Anyar. This kind of behavior is not an isolated incidence but rather a pattern that can be found repeated throughout the city, particulary by becak, ojeg (motorcycle taxi), and motorcyclists.