Saturday, 15 July 2006 @ 4:33pm.

The focus group discussion today was interesting, but unfortunately, it must be redone. I won’t get into details here, but essentially the participants didn’t match up on particular characteristics regarding their backgrounds or behaviors in the ways they should have. Looks like I’ll have to figure out what to do with the existing data and how to add a seventh group.

To get over the disappointment of today’s work, let me go on an unrelated tangent…

Last night, I rode on an ojek because the traffic was horrible in South Jakarta. It took me longer than usual to figure out who were ojek and who were not, however. Often there is a little sign posted and a group of men waiting around, but more and more one sees single drivers all over the place. There are currently no regulations regarding who can be an ojek, so anyone with a motorbike can essentially be for hire. Some ojek are responsible, i.e., they have licenses, drive carefully, and have helmets for themselves and passengers. For example, the ojek driver from yesterday provided a helmet (although it was pretty flimsy plastic!), drove relatively slowly, and made sure to slow down before any speed bumps. He appeared to be quite cautious and we didn’t squeeze through other motorbikes and cars as I’ve done before with other ojek drivers. He even raised his voice at a couple of young men who happened to bump the bike a little while we were waiting for a train to pass by on the tracks.

Read about ojek in Jakarta and concerns from the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (ORGANDA) here.

I took this picture some time ago, but I thought I’d post it since it’s an artsy version of an ojek stop:
Ojek Sign in Jakarta