'Private vehicles still crowd streets'

The recent fuel price rises have led to increases in the prices of other services and commodities, which has considerably reduced people's purchasing power. The Jakarta Post asked residents what should have been done, by either the government or the people, to ease their burden.

Syafrudin, 37, is an environmentalist. He works for an environmental watchdog, the office of which is on Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta. He lives in Citayam subdistrict, Depok:

The recent fuel price increases hit urban workers hard because they have to spend more on transportation.

Before the fuel increases, they had to spend some 15 percent of their income on transportation. Of course, with the fare increases it's going to cost them much more. Ideally, transportation costs should be less than 10 percent of their income.

I do not see a way out for urban workers. They could use motorcycles, but we cannot suggest that as an alternative as that would spark another problem.

As you know, the number of motorcycles on the road is increasing, worsening traffic problems.

I think, the only way to help urban workers is for the government to subsidize public transportation.

Suhud, 35, is an activist of a non-governmental organization for environmental issues, whose office is on Jl. Casablanca, South Jakarta. He lives in Depok:

It seems that the fuel price increases have not caused a decrease in the number of private vehicles on the road. Nearly all streets in the city remain congested.

So long as the government fails to upgrade the public transportation system, private cars will remain the favorite choice.

The fuel price increases have also caused public transportation fares, including those of taxis, to increase. Therefore, people who usually use taxis are more likely to drive themselves.

Meanwhile, urban workers with lower salaries have no other choice but to pay more for public transportation as most of them change their transportation several times in one trip.

The government could help them by reorganizing the routes of public transportation so they do not need to change public transportation so many times.

-- The Jakarta Post