Entrepreneurs driving change for Jakarta's commuters who spend hours each day in the world's worst traffic

Jakarta’s traffic jams are a constant vexation for the city’s 10 million residents. With the chaos not looking to abate anytime soon, entrepreneurial types have made it their business to help fellow commuters circumvent the world’s worst gridlock.

Commuters spend three to four hours a day in their cars on Jakarta’s roads, a situation which Indonesian businessman Nadiem Makarim described as a huge waste of productivity. The average speed of traffic is 8.3km/h, slower than a runner of average fitness covering the same distance in a race.

Yet the Indonesian capital’s glaring inefficiencies have also created opportunities for the likes of Makarim, who has launched a smartphone app that lets users summon a motorbike rider to weave them quickly through gridlocked traffic, deliver a meal or even get the shopping.

Since the launch of the app in January, the number of distinctive, green-jacketed drivers on its books has jumped tenfold to 10,000. The app itself has been downloaded nearly 400,000 times in six months – a national record.

“I created GO-JEK because I really needed it,” Makarim said in Jakarta on the sidelines of the annual New Cities Summit, where over 800 CEOs, mayors, thinkers, artists and innovators met to discuss urban change.