To alleviate Jakarta’s macet woes, the provincial government is thinking of imposing a ban on all private vehicles that are over 10 years old. If so, shouldn’t the same rule apply to public transportation vehicles? After all, the city is overflowing with rusty old pieces of junk in the form of smoke-belching buses and minivans.
But Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has other plans for public transportation vehicles. He said they would be subjected to frequent road suitability tests.
“For public transportation vehicles, the solution isn’t in the 10-year limit but in road tests. The road tests cannot be taken as a joke. In England, the buses could be up to 50 years old, but the road tests are proper,” Ahok said on Sunday, as quoted by Warta Kota.
“Private cars – however good they are – will have an age limit. They can be sold to other regions afterwards. But we want to improve public transportation first. I hope in 2016 we can see an improvement.”
