Weeding out old cars not fair

Private car owners mostly love their cars and take good care of them and their car's age has nothing to do with its performance or compliance to general standards; whereas public bus drivers generally care little about the condition of their vehicles as long as the things run.

Belching smoke is of no concern to them; they blame the pool owner of the vehicle. Failing brakes or lights are also no big deal as long as nothing happens while they are driving the vehicle; if something does, they just run away and feel no guilt. If this "new agenda" is to curb pollution, then this group of buses, trucks, mikrolets, oplets and bemos should be addressed first for polluting our air without shame and not private vehicle owners.

Isn't there a regulation that states when vehicle registrations are extended that all vehicles are tested to see if they comply with emission standards, along with light and brake checks? Why is this testing not done? It's not difficult. All the authorities need to do is to hold the vehicle papers of the car -- not the driver's licenses -- if the emission test/lights/brakes don't meet the standards and give drivers a temporary road permit to bring the car to a repair shop and come back for another test in a set time; say one or two weeks.

To help with the likely long lines of vehicles needing to be tested, registered car repair-shops and gas stations should get a nationally standardized/licensed device to check vehicle emissions for a reasonable fee and give a certificate to the vehicle owner/driver if all is OK, or repair the car until the emission and other defects are corrected. With this certificate the vehicle owner can get back his car papers from the police who can even undertake another verifying test "to hassle" the vehicle owner, who will think twice before sending his car in an unworthy condition to the police next year.

If affordable, car owners should have their own officially licensed emission test devices to ensure against possible police accusations of unsatisfactory results. I have noticed though, that a lot of private car owners drive with only one rear or front light working at night.

SUHARTO Tangerang Banten