Indonesia-related_JakartaPost_2006 04 12_3-in-1 system needs reviewing

I think the time is ripe for a review of the 3-in-1 system! The system was introduced to ensure fewer cars in the golden triangle area by encouraging car-pooling among people from the same neighborhoods.
Originally the system required three or more passengers in a car only at the time of entry into the protected area. Once inside, it was neither necessary nor possible to have three passengers in the car as people who had joined the car-pool got off one by one at their offices. There was also no such restriction in the evenings.
The system failed because of the easy availability of "roadside jockeys". This was the situation when I left Jakarta in 1997. When I returned in 2004, a modified system requiring three passengers at all times during the designated hours in mornings and evenings was in force.
This modification is contrary to the very basic objective of the 3-in-1 system because it discourages the car-pooling. For example: three employees live in the same condo and work in the restricted area. They enter the golden triangle and the first employee gets out -- now the other two who wish to get out elsewhere are no longer eligible to be in that area. What will they do?
A couple running their individual businesses in the golden triangle leaves home together with their driver. When the husband gets out at his office, the wife has to call one of the employees from her office to come to her husband's office to make a threesome!
In the evening, most of the employees while away their time in restaurants or other places. And come 7 p.m., all the roads groan under the second coming!
The system can be modified to achieve its objectives and also enrich the exchequer by issuing monthly, weekly and daily passes for regular users of the golden triangle or by the introduction of a pre-paid E-Z pass system which could record and charge every entry during the designated hours. (I saw this system in Malaysia recently.) Today the money goes into pockets of jockeys and others.
The traffic congestion has not reduced by the present set of rules, anyway!
K. B. KALE
Jakarta