Jam today

摘要

Every weekday morning, Zarhay Infante leaves home in the Caracas dormitory town of Guarenas shortly after 5am. If the journey goes well, she reaches her office in the capital, some 30km (19 miles) away, around three-and-a-half hours later. "Three years ago, when I started doing this," Ms Infante says, "I could get to Caracas in 45 minutes on the motorway. But it gets worse every day."rnThis road congestion is tribute to an economic growth which, thanks to the rise in the oil price, has averaged around 9% a year since 2004. But it is also a failure of public policy. Caracas, a city of some 2m, is crammed into a narrow valley flanked by mountains. Many of the 3m people living in the surrounding suburbs commute to the capital each day.