People form cities and in turn, cities gather more people, which makes big cities. Even though people form big cities to live better and more conveniently, there are some inconvenient situations in big cities if the facilities for their people are not much enough to use. When I saw the article of BBC NEWS "Indonesia concrete balls combat train surfing" , it reminds me of terrible times when I was a student who commuted every day by subway which was called the Hell's train.
According to BBC NEWS, Indonesian Railway stuff have started setting up concrete balls like the picture above train tracks near a station outside Jakarta to prevent passengers who have ridden on trains' roofs during the rush hours. The official says that in 2008, at least 53 commuters died and last year, 11 people were killed by riding on trains' roofs. BBC says that " Most victims are electrocuted by overhead power cables, but some fall off train carriages while trains are moving". The officials say that they had tried other measures to stop the problem, but they didn't work, so they wish that the newest one will be successful, which makes them expand the project.
As I already said above, 20 years ago in Korea, the subways were called the Hell's train. Especially, rush hours in the morning and in the evening, there were too many people in trains. Passengers couldn't move only a little, so they had to stay in same position until they got off. Very often, I had to miss my station, because I couldn't go through the path stuck with too many people. After that, the government realized the seriousness of the subway problem and tried to solve the problem by devising other measures, such as building other subway lines, making public buses road for only themselves, and promoting companies to change the starting and finishing times.
Jakarta is one of the big cities in Asia like Seoul. Too many people move in rush hours. Usually in big cities, there is not any room for roads for cars, so there are subways in big cities. Trains are the best transportation which can carry many people at a time in Jakarta not subways. It is definitely because there are not enough transportation to move a multitude of people, many people ride on the train's roof even though they know the possibilities of accidents. Also, it is true that the behaviors people ride there are illegal. However, devising concrete balls seems to be a rather rough and primitive way. As they said, the officials already tried other dangerous methods,even putting rolls of barbed wire on train roofs- but nothing has worked.
As the roof surfers says, "They have tried everything to keep us from riding...but in the end we always win", I don't think that the newest method will work. It dose not make sense that more dangerous manner should be put to save people from the dangerous situation. I hope that the Indonesian government should make safer projects to solve the problems, looking into other big cities around it.
__________
References
NEWS. Retrieved January 19,2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16596181
Sunny,
ReplyDeleteMy silly solution is that the Indonesia government should buy a train with a open roof. If there was no roof, commuters would no longer ride it. 555
In Thailand, some kinds of public transport have been dangerous. There have been a lot of cases that poor students have died from falling from a crowed mini-bus while going to school. I don't think those students irresponsible passengers or tried to cheat on bus fares. They just rushed to go to school, and had no choice of another kind of public transportation.
Rain?
ReplyDeleteBut I like your "silly solution".
It meets all of the necessary conditions: it's a complete idea clearly stated in a sentence.
Sorry. Sentences.
ReplyDeleteSunny,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I've never had your experience commuting. When I get the BTS to AUA in the morning, around 9:00 AM, it's full, but not packed, and I don't mind standing for the two stops from Chongnonsri to Rajadamri.
I've always avoided peak hour travel, so I don't know how bad the BTS might get.
Plan,
ReplyDeleteI think your idea is good even though it can't be realized.
As you said, the people who ride on the roof of trains just need more public transportation. And, after reading your comment,I realized my word choice of" stupid" was not good. You know that my original intention was not that I blamed them, right?, so I change the word.
Sunny,
ReplyDeleteI think it is a tough work for resolving this problem, because it was caused by many factors. I think the best solution is that Indonesia government should invest lots of money to develop mass transit, such as subway,sky train,and high speed train.That systems can transport many passengers and save the time for them on the way. Looking an economic angle, It can create many jobs and increase economic growth rate.
Vee,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you.