“Public transportation, not just in Kuala Lumpur but in other big cities, is not efficient enough,” said Wan Agyl Wan Hassan, a former Land Public Transport Commission official.

Wan Agyl, a managing partner of Agyl & Partners, said this was why many people were dependent on their cars.

There are more than 33.08 million registered vehicles nationwide, and road transport department (JPJ) records indicate that since 2019, one million new vehicles have been registered annually.

Last year, then science, technology and innovation minister Dr Adham Baba said the government was studying the implementation of an end-of-life vehicle policy.

Such policies were aimed at preventing pollution and increasing road safety, he said.

However, transport minister Loke Siew Fook has ruled out the introduction of the policy, saying it would burden the public.

Law Teik Hua of Universiti Putra Malaysia’s road safety research centre also said the policy was impractical.

“If we want to implement it on safety factors, certain criteria must be fulfilled,” he told FMT, adding that this included an efficient public transport system. “But now the (public transport) system is poor.”

Law said the government could consider implementing the policy in phases, including applying it to certain vehicles.

“For example, vehicles that are 15 to 18 years old that have a lot of problems, perhaps get those cars off the road first,” he said.