THE government’s transport policies are skewed towards helping people own vehicles instead of using public transport more, commuters said.

They said that fuel subsidies and tax exemptions only encouraged the use and ownership of private vehicles, resulting in more vehicles on the road.

Malaysian Public Transport Users Association chairman Ajit Johl said the government must have solid policies for both private vehicles and public transport, and only then would it be possible to have more people using public services. 

“However, the government tends to do a lot for private vehicle owners such as fuel subsidies and also sales and service tax (SST) exemption.

“Because of such policies, consumers tend to buy more cars than use public transport,” Ajit told The Malaysian Insight.

Ajit said one of the improvements the government can do for public transport is to have more dedicated public transport lanes. 

“When you do things like that, you’ll automatically see more people switching to public transport from private vehicles.

“For instance if 30 people want to get to point B from point A, that’s 30 cars on the road but if we have a good public transport policy, all these 30 people will use a bus. This will reduce traffic as well,” he said. 

He also said that the main reason for an increase in private vehicles over the past couple years was due to the SST exemption. 

“There’s still a fear of Covid-19 among the people, so when they see the prices of cars are cheaper, they will purchase it. 

“On top of that, the government also gives fuel subsidies, which enables people to travel in their own vehicles more,” said Ajit.

The number of vehicles in the country has overtaken the human population, with an increase of at least a million vehicles annually since 2019. 

Last year, there were 33.3 million registered vehicles nationwide versus the human population, which stood at 32.6 million, according to road safety expert Professor Dr Kulanthayan K.C. Mani of Universiti Putra Malaysia. 

Of the 33.3 million registered vehicles, up to 47.3% were cars; 46.6% were motorcycles while 4.7% were goods vehicles. The rest were buses, taxis, self-drive car rentals and others.

Recurrent breakdowns

Commuter Muhammad Ammar, 27, said he uses public transport on a daily basis but hopes it will be more efficient.

“There are days where I have to queue close to an hour to get a train after work and most of the time, the reason is because the train has a technical issue. 

“If it’s a problem that occurs once or twice I’m fine but lately you see it happening frequently,” he said. 

Mandy Lee, 32, who takes the bus to work daily, said it’s frustrating to be stranded in traffic despite using public transport. 

“At times I think maybe I should just get a car instead. 

“If I drive, I will still be stuck in traffic but at least I am seated whereas in a bus during peak hours you are lucky if you have a seat,” she said.

Meanwhile, R. Kishan, 26, said Malaysia has all the potential to make public transport user-friendly but was simply not doing it. 

“Perhaps it’s about time the government focused more on public transport than private vehicles. 

“If you can’t have a designated lane for public transport, then maybe the government can increase the train frequency.

“If you notice during peak hours, hundreds of people will try to get in the train because it may take too long for the next one to arrive. It is time to increase the frequency,” he said. – June 25, 2022.