Jakarta – Every workday morning, a small but expanding community in the traffic-clogged megacity of Jakarta brave fume-belching buses, aggressively driven cars and steamy heat to indulge in an unlikely passion: bike riding.
Indonesia's teeming capital is home to more than 10 million people but with no mass transit system, most get to work or school on packed buses or by motorcycle, with a few enjoying the air-conditioned luxury of their own cars.
Rejecting these options is a 500-strong contingent of cyclists who say they save time by using their bikes, and now with soaring petrol prices – the government hiked rates by 126 percent in October – money as well.
Taufik Hidayat, who founded Jakarta's Bike2Work community in February last year, concedes that conditions on the roads of one of the world's most polluted cities "can be very bad".
"Other than erecting billboards promoting clean air, officials in this city pretty much just don't care about the importance of good air quality and they are doing very little to improve it," the 35-year-old complains. A 2004 report from the US-Asia Environmental Partnership program of the US aid agency found that in 2003, there were only seven days when Jakarta's air quality was in the healthy range – down on 2002 when Jakartans could breathe easy for a full 22 days.
Hidayat, an information technology consultant, began the group with about 150 like-minded souls who wanted to "encourage each other to remain motivated" to keep cycling to work.
Thanks to a strong Internet presence and by taking part in several public gatherings on environmental issues this year, the community has mushroomed to more than 500. Members also make a group ride along one of Jakarta's busiest boulevards once a month.
"We are not asking people to join us. We are simply trying to show them that 'Hey, if you want to save some cash from having no fuel expenses, you should consider this as an alternative'," Hidayat tells AFP.
With biking shoes, a helmet and a face mask always tightly strapped, Hidayat has been zigzagging Jakarta's maddening traffic on his bike three times a week since 2003, traveling about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from his house in the Jakarta suburb of Tangerang to his office in South Jakarta.
He saves 90 minutes a day compared to driving his motorcycle or taking the bus, plus up to 600,000 rupiah (59 dollars) a month in fares and fuel.
An average, locally-assembled mountain bike costs around 500,000 to a million rupiah, while Taiwanese-built bikes fully equipped with rear and front suspensions and disc brakes cost a heftier 12 million rupiah.
This compares to around 10 million rupiah for a typical motorcycle – the wheels of choice for most Indonesians.
Inhaling exhaust fumes from speeding motorcycles, belching cars and oversized buses is "not a fun experience" Hidayat admits, but he says discomfort is reduced by taking short cuts along less congested routes.
Hidayat wants Jakarta city officials to see the wisdom of setting up bike lanes along the city's main streets, which he said would encourage more cyclists to hit the roads, reducing both congestion and pollution.
Jakarta Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo promised his group several months ago to "look into" their suggestion to set up bike lanes on the city's main streets, he said. With few major parks in the city, venues for cycling are limited.
Captain Yanuar Sofian of the Jakarta police traffic precinct admits cyclists are "not getting their share of the road, but the law is clear", with Jakarta's express lanes off-limits to them.
"Cyclists must know that the risk they are taking is big," he says. Hidayat attributes his own impeccable safety record to his wife's "ritual" prayers – but three of his colleagues have been injured in minor accidents.
It's this fear that keeps many such as car driver Wisnu Wardhana, 33, firmly behind the wheel, although he supports their cause in theory.
"I don't think I can join them because the risk is too big to take," he said.
Bike2Worker Sinta Listiana, 19, says being a female rider poses its own challenges. "Many men often ride their motorcycles along side my bike, trying to be flirtatious, but I just ignore them," says Listiana, a junior data-entry officer.
She makes a hazardous return trip from her home in southern Jakarta's Cileduk area – known for constantly being what Jakartans call "macet total" or in a complete traffic jam – to her office, saving at least an hour a day.
Listiana's colleague and veteran bike-to-work rider Devin Oktavianus, 32, says bad traffic, traffic cops – who often honk their noisy motorcyce horns behind his back – and smoggy air mattered little to him.
But finding a shower after a sweaty ride was a challenge.
"It would be nice if the city enforced office buildings to provide clean public showers and safe places for people to store their bikes," he sighs.
Aang, owner of Jakarta's well-known Sinar Bangka bike store, says most of his clients are wealthy and prefer only to ride only on weekends.
"If they were willing to leave their Mercedes Benz and BMWs and persuade their rich friends to join the group, Jakarta would be a lot cleaner and I could make more money," he quips.