Fewer Tips For Asia's Traffic Helpers

Indonesia's move away from cash hurts 'small people'

- By Stu Woo AND FapriyAH ALAIDRUS

JAKARTA, Indonesia-A hallmark of Indonesian daily life is facing extinction.

For decades, a slice of this country's 280 million people have made a buck off its infamous traffic. Men and women stand in the street and help cars make turns, in exchange for tips of a few cents handed out the window.t the days are numbered for these unofficial traffic controllers. Indonesians are increasingly forgoing cash in favor of smartphone payments, leaving less change around for traffic directors such as Azis Riyansyah. He said that a couple of years ago, he earned the equivalent of $16 to $18 daily. Now it's $12 a day and going down.

"There is no small money for small people any more," he said.

These ubiquitous freelancers are called pak ogah, after a children's TV character who does odd jobs for money. There is no official tally. Tolerated but not beloved by the government, they try to get by in a country where begging is illegal.

As Indonesia, the world's fourth-most-populous nation, grew wealthier in recent decades, people bought more cars.

But the road network didn't keep pace. Congestion is one reason why the government is moving its capital from Jakarta to Nusantara, a new city on another island.

The gridlock in Jakarta, a city of 11 million people, perennially ranks among the world's worst.