Tax fuel to help ease traffic jams: Expert

SURABAYA, East Java (JP): Johan Silas, an academic and city planner, has proposed that the government impose a fuel tax to ease traffic jams in several cities.

"I propose that fuel should be taxed. Taxation will not reduce the purchase of cars but it will reduce the usage of cars. People in cities will use their cars only at weekends," Silas told reporters here last weekend.

He said that in Singapore and Hong Kong, where the prices of cars are among the highest in the world, the high car prices and high taxes did not reduce the number of cars being purchased: "If people need cars they will buy cars no matter what."

The government, he said, must improve the amount and quality of public transportation: "This is the real challenge."

Traffic jams are a major problem in Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung and other large cities of Java.

In Jakarta, where traffic jams are getting worse, there are plans to build a 14.5 kilometer subway system, linking Blok M in South Jakarta and Kota in West Jakarta.

Besides building a better public transportation system, Silas said that more city infrastructure alone would not solve the traffic jams. Nor would increases in luxury taxes.

"In Bangkok, there are three-story toll roads, and the traffic is still bad," he said.

The Jakarta administration has planned to impose various new taxes, including fuel taxes, to help finance the development of a subway and to subsidies its fares. (27/rid)