Parking and its perennial problems...

There was a recent announcement that Penang will be introducing a new parking system soon. It is high time that the old system be replaced. 'When you were prepared to pay the attendant, he was no where to be seen', is a common complaint. If you came from out of town, what should you do? We have even gone to the extent of paying someone in a shop near it, trusting that he would pay on our behalf! The amounts incurred were usually small, like 60 sen or 80 sen per hour. I bet there were many who would not bother, thinking for those meagre amounts, the city council would not bother to take further action.

In Petaling Jaya recently, the night when my ex-classmate celebrated his birthday, because of me having gone to the wrong restaurant, I actually paid Rm5.00 (per entry) for 10 minutes of parking! It was only later that I realized I could have asked if it was possible to return the ticket for a partial refund since the attendant looked quite puzzled why I left so soon? Theoretically, it actually worked out to 50 sen a minute or equivalent to Rm30 per hour!

Parking rates are normally fixed arbitrarily, through a process of trial and error. On the one hand, the management tries to maximize profit while on the other, it depends on supply and demand. For example, in the Bukit Bintang area, the minimum rate seems to be Rm4 per hour. Any variation thereof would include higher rates, higher rates for subsequent hours, or fixed sum per entry. Since my recent visit to Megamall, I realized there are two main parking zones: one for the well heeled (The Garden) which charges Rm5 (weekend Rm7) for the first 3 hours and Rm2 or Rm3 for subsequent hour (if not mistaken), as compared with Rm1 (weekend Rm2) per entry (I think) for the masses. Naturally, the former car park is not so congested.

In the outskirts of KL or in smaller towns, free parking seems to be necessary to draw the crowds to retail outlets. Tesco in Ipoh provide free parking. Again, through trial and error, management can impose or increase parking rates depending on events. Free parking needs to consider the use by employees or customers of other buildings taking advantage of it. Sometimes, parking fee has to be imposed to discourage such people.

How many of us can stand those illegal parking attendants aka 'jaga keretas'? After business/office hours, when it should be free parking in public areas, in come these opportunists! Yes, the amounts are small, but because of principle or dislike over being forced to pay, any refusal to do so could mean an expensive repair job to your car! It is not the amount, it is the idea of being forced to pay under the threat of damage to your vehicle. Who wouldn't be annoyed?

Then we have double parking by those who popped into shops for a quick transaction, but what seems quick could be a frustrating wait for someone caught with another vehicle blocking his car, with no idea where he or she was.

But there is a novel way in China, as this video clip shows, on how to create a parking space:

http://wimp.com/chinaparking/

Link