PETALING JAYA: The number of vehicles on the road is manageable as vehicles that are no longer in service are not being removed from the Road Transport Department’s database, says the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA).

       Its president Datuk Aishah Ahmad said vehicles on the road appear to be more than what it is in reality as the JPJ does not remove vehicles that are no longer on the road from its database.

       “That’s the reason why there is a high number (of vehicles), but in reality I don’t think there are that many vehicles on the road.

       “Over the years, they (JPJ) have never taken out the vehicles that are no longer on the road,” she said yesterday.

       With the Covid-19 pandemic raging, Aishah believes that people, too, prefer to have their own transportation for safety reasons.

       “Those who cannot afford (their own vehicles) would still take public transport. But our public transport is not up to the mark yet for people’s convenience,” she said.

       In the Klang Valley, she said, public transportation such as the LRT train services and feeder buses are helping but in rural areas, the lack of frequent bus services might be a damper.

       Universiti Putra Malaysia Road Safety Research Centre head Assoc Prof Law Teik Hua concurred that the database that is maintained does not remove the vehicles that have probably been involved in an accident or have been abandoned.

       Law said there might be around 10% to 15% of unused vehicles that are still considered active in the database.

       However, Law believes that vehicle ownership in Malaysia is still high, especially for motorcycles.

       “We are one of the countries in the world where we have too many motorcycles on the road and this is particularly true in Penang.

       “It is more convenient to use motorcycles than cars when moving around in George Town,” Law added.

       He said the lack of public transport usage is because motorcycles are deemed to be cheaper than using public transport, with the lower income group preferring this method of transport.

       As such, he said, there needs to be a plan to make public transportation more attractive, especially to the lower and middle income groups.

       The high vehicle ownership in the country, Malaysian Public Transport Users Association (4PAM) president Ajit Johl said, is attributed to the fact that the country has two national car manufacturers.

       “We are a car-loving country because we are made to be one,” he said, adding that car ownership in the country is relatively cheap when compared to public transport’s inaccessibility or the lack of last-mile connectivity.

       But he pointed out that public transport services in the country have improved tremendously.

       “I’m comparing the bus service, which is the cheapest mode of public transport, against the old ‘bus mini wilayah’ mode of public transport in the Klang Valley where there was an overload of passengers and no air conditioning.

       “If you take that against what we have today, we have grown more than 1,000%,” he said.

       Ajit said last-mile connectivity is still an issue as Malaysia is an expanding country and has a growing population with new routes coming up often.

       He said the biggest concern for the lack of public transport utilisation is the lack of infrastructure such as bus stops that are not rain-proof, lack of security elements, inadequate lighting and no CCTVs.

       Ajit added that the lack of legislation to protect users is also a concern, noting that this needs to be in place for users to be confident of the public transport industry.