Should The Government Spend More Money Improving Roads & Highways or Public Transportations?

            The public transportations that i have used in the past couple of years wasn’t too comfortable, nor was it safe by any means, both the transportation and the ones operating them. Maybe once in a while you’ll find a few public transportations that is decent enough to ride in, but i’ll guarantee that will happen only once in a while. I’m not talking about planes, business trains, or even ferries, what i’m talking about are the ones that gets you through the day, that either helps, or worsen the traffic. Buses, minivans, and commuter trains, those public tranportations in Jakarta.

The buses and minivans are bad, sometimes old and rusty, and then the driver, whose very reckless and impatients at driving, those are the huge factor that makes these public transportations unfit to ride. The trains too, the economy ones, without the air conditoner, it’s clearly unfit to ride. Inspite all of that, rapes and robberies happens often on minivan, even on taxis too, especially these past few years. Maybe rapes don’t happens on commuter trains or buses, but robberies still occurs, and sometimes people get molested too there.

And after that whole safety issue, then comes the quantities. There are lots and lots of people commuting everyday to the capital city of Indonesia. Massive amount of people waiting in line on train stations and bus stops everyday in busy hour. When people finally got on the public transporations of their choosing, it would still be so crowded in it. That’s why its an easy target for criminals.

I know that the main problem on the road nowadays is the traffic jam, but if the government can’t stop the population growth properly in Jakarta, the roads will always be crowded. If everyone or just the most of them wanted to use their own vehicle everyday, no matter how improved the roads and highways have becomes, the matter won’t stop. That’s why i think that more money should be spent on improving the public transportations. I don’t know how, maybe by fixing the ones we already have, getting new ones¸ get a responsible and well educated driver, educate the people to be more civilized, i don’t know, but make it more fit to ride and the people want to ride it. The people needs and safety comes first.