COMPANY executive Lestari Sudibyo leaves her home in South Jakarta in a chauffeur-driven car at 6am every day, arriving at work in the western part of the city almost three hours later.

The drive home at night is equally long.

"I go through a novel every two days reading in the car, I am always worn out by the six hours spent commuting, and by the time I get home at night my kids are in bed already," said the 41-year-old mother of three.

When there is no traffic congestion - during some holiday periods, for example - the same journey takes no more than 30 minutes.

From stressed office workers to a business community worried by soaring distribution costs, all have testified that Jakarta's chronically congested traffic is getting worse by the day.

National dailies like Kompas have been giving the issue front-page treatment to highlight the problem.

The traffic jams have worsened in recent months as the city government expanded a network of dedicated bus lanes on its busiest roads.

People complained that they spend twice or three times as long on the road. One citizen has filed a lawsuit against the Jakarta administration.

The Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation provides a call centre for complaints that may add up to a future class action.

Businesses said slower distribution has resulted in goods staying put at warehouses.

A study by a non-governmental organisation, Yayasan Pelangi Indonesia, estimated that Jakarta lost about 43 trillion rupiah (S$6.72 billion) from shrinking productivity and extra fuel costs this year, up sharply from about 12.8 trillion in 2003.

This is not counting the environmental and health costs.

"There are more congested areas and the peak hours are longer now," the group's transport researcher Andi Rahmah told The Straits times.

"In fact, it is hard to tell when the peak hours are."

New transport businesses have emerged to meet the needs of people fed up of the commuting hassle.

There are paid-for car pools, chartered bus services from the suburbs and, for top executives who can afford it, helicopter cabs.

Costing anywhere from US$1,400 (S$2,000) per hour - or three million rupiah per trip per passenger - the chopper service is used by top company executives to get around during heavy traffic.

Under pressure to step in, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono summoned newly elected Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo last month and ordered him to fix the problem soon.

The next day, the city authorities decided to allow private vehicles to use the bus lanes. It provided temporary relief but did nothing to solve the problem.

Transport experts have likened Jakarta's road system to a network of clogged arteries, with only a matter of time before the city suffers a stroke.

In the past 10 years, the number of motor vehicles rose by 100 per cent in Jakarta to a new total of 2.6 million cars and 3.2 million motorcycles.

But new roads grew by only 10 per cent over the same time.

At this rate, experts predict that traffic could grind to a halt as early as 2014.

Private vehicle ownership has been driven up by the relatively low price of cars and motorcycles, as well as the unreliable public transport system.

In 2004, city administrators started the TransJakarta busway system as the first part of a planned mass rapid transit system.

It provides exclusive bus lanes to cut travel time, air-conditioned buses and more pleasant bus stops to entice motorists to leave their cars at home.

But many Jakarta residents are sticking with their cars because the busway's coverage is not extensive enough.

A monorail system touted as the second part of the MRT system has been dogged by financial problems and internal strife and is now in a state of limbo.

Jakarta is now embarking on a subway system project, which is targeted for completion by 2014. Feasibility studies are under way for the 9 trillion rupiah project backed financially by Japan.

But with 269 new cars and 1,200 new motorcycles added to the roads every day, quicker solutions are needed.

Among the policies being considered is limiting car use in the city by implementing a Singapore-style electronic road pricing (ERP) system, restricting vehicle standard carbon emission and raising parking tariffs.

Mr Muhammad Akbar, who heads the traffic system in the Office of Transport in Jakarta, said the city is currently in the process of designing engineering details of an ERP system he hopes will be ready by next year.

"It looks like we will adopt the Singapore system, using a similar kind of vehicle units and pre-paid cards," he said.

Initially, it will be introduced along main roads downtown and during rush hours, he said.

At the same time, the city will beef up the fleet of buses on the TransJakarta system, and provide carparks at major bus terminals so commuters can leave their vehicles for city buses, he said.

"It is hard to build more roads because of the lack of space, so we have no choice but to limit use of private vehicles," he said.

"But before that, we need to provide the alternative of good public transport so people will not hesitate to leave their cars."

Critics point out that the various plans are not integrated and suggest that, like the monorail, they may not be completed on target.

In the meantime, Jakarta residents start each day suffering the same long commute to work.