I believe all those of us who live in the Klang Valley are very familiar with the endless parking problems we face, such as double parking, maybe even triple parking, illegal parking in front of fire hydrants or busstops, parking on yellow lines, street corners, motorcycle bays, etc...
Subang Jaya is one area where this problem also exist, especially in SS15 & Taipan. There's an average of 2 parking lots in front of a shop lot, which is hardly enough considering most shops have 3 floors, with certainly more than 2 customers and employers present at the same time.
Some pictures of the problem....
While I find this to be an annoyance and a problem, maybe some people don't. So I guess the first question that should be asked (to make no assumptions), is whether this is really a problem or not...
If you've decided its a problem, then read on, if not, the rest will not be relevant to you.
So, now for those of you who has decided that its a problem, lets analyze this problem.
Why do people park illegally? Maybe...
- its nearer to where they want to go?
- save time?
- everybody is doing it anyway?
- love to annoy other people on purpose?
The fact it, with the shoplot system we have in Malaysia, there's only a limited amount of parking bays in front of any given shop. Probably 30-50 years ago, when people hardly drove, this shoplot system was fine, as there wasn't that many cars to occupy the space in front of shoplots. But now when practically everybody drives, it is a problem. This is becuase each shop is likely to have more than 2 employees/visitors driving at any given time, infact, its safe to say, more than 5. Some like the banks, have at least 30-50 people at any one time.
So, if there's not enough car parks for everyone to park right next to the shop they want to go to, then I guess we can safely conclude that there must an alternative parking place or system. It could be basement car park, maybe a multi-storey car park in the area.
SS15 has a small basement car park in Subang Square, and a potential site for a multi-storey car park at the plot land next to the MPSJ's hall. Taipan has a under-utilised multi-storey car park. A discussion with operator of the Taipan multi-storey car park operator recently revealed an average vacancy of 400bays at any given time. Taipan also has a plot of land behind True Fitness (Pos Malaysia reserve), which is a temporary car park, with the potential to be converted into another multi-storey car park.
Since we have established the fact that in these days, not everyone will have the privalage to park infront of their destination, some would have to park in the multistorey and walk a distance. And at this point we also agree that parking these many forms of illegal parking is not acceptable.
So, question now is - who gets to park in front of their destination, and who has to park further away?
Option 1: First come, first serve + heavy enforcement
This is the present day system, where who's lucky or early gets the lot. The others have either the option to park illegally or park futher away. If we want to maintain this option, then we need to step up enforcement to get rid of illegal parking.
Option 2: Shop front are reserve for those who are making short visits
This is a radical idea for Malaysia. No where in Malaysia (except in one office complex in Kelana Jaya) practices this model. Allow me to explain. And to make things easier, we'll use Taipan as the main guide in this discussion from here on.
Since a significant number of shoplots are actually offices in Taipan, and these offices tend to open/start work before the retail outlets open, a large number of the shopfront parking are taken up by these employees. And why not? At 50sen/hr, its cheaper than the multi-storey car park far far away, and they can park right at their doorstep. Parking in these lots becomes the most sensible thing to do. And that's what happens.
Later on, when the retail outlets and banks open, then we see the flood of cars coming in. These people then have a dilemma. To park at the multi-storey car park - where its a good walking distance away, and consumes time to park (take the ticket, drive round and round, park, walk downstairs, then walk to the shop/bank). 15 mins to park and get to the distination. 15mins back to the car. And do this so that they can go to the bank for 5 mins? or drop by a shop for 10mins?
I guess the natural incentive to park legally goes away, i mean who would want to spend 15mins parking to run a 5 min errand. And because we don't want to anger the rakyat, we go easy on this offenders, understanding their plight that theres not enough parking space.
However, wouldn't it be better, if those who are going to spend 7, 8 hours there in Taipan park in the multistorey car park instead. The pain of the extra walk is technically less for them, as they will be parking for a longer term. I mean spend 15mins to park for a 5 min errand vs 15mins to park for a day in the office.
The other benefit if the long term parkers were to use the multi-storey car park instead is that it frees up room for customers to park, improving the overall business climate in the area. Which is certainly not a bad thing.
So, the question here is this: Who should get priority to park shopfront?
If we do agree that shopfront parking should be reserved for short term visitors/customers, then one mechanism is to plainly limit the parking time at each bay. This is done in lots of countries, such as Australia, South Africa, etc. To purely do this, would mean a lot of "jaga kereta", watching the spots, making sure people leave on time and not overstay. Midvalley megamall tried this for a while a few years ago, where shop front parking, infront of rhb, alliance bank was limited to 15mins. It worked, but with great manpower requirement.
Another option is to increase the parking charges per hour, after the grace period, of say 1 hour. 1st hour maintain at 50sen, subsequent hours RM2/hr. No monthly pass is allowed. So those who wish to park less than an hour, just pay 50sen, as they do today. Only those who are coming in for long errands or for work, would "suffer". If they park all day, 8 hours, they will incur a charge of RM14.50. This will certainly motivate them to park at the multistorey car park, where it would be half the price.
Of course good enforcement is needed to make sure parking fees are paid, and this shouldn't be an issue. Even 1 person constantly making rounds is enough to deter anyone who hopes to get away not paying.
I admit, this is not a win-win-win solution. In fact its a win-win-lose, where
short term visitors and customers win
businesses win, as customers have an easier time to access parking and thus are happier
but long term parkers such as employees lose.
But then again, is there a win-win-win solution? What accomplishes the goal of the greater good?
Lets analyze the cons of the other model "first come, first serve"
1. If we don't strictly enforce, it'll be like today's situation, lots of illegal parking
2. If we strictly enforce, people will be very annoyed, as they will find it very very inconvinient to do their errands. Not a few employeess unhappy, but the rakyat in general.
3. If we strictly enforce, lots of businesses will suffer, as people will end up going to other shops in other areas due to parking difficulties. Businesses will suffer. That can't be good.
But what about those who park long term?
1. We can negotiate to bring down the monthly pass of the long term car park from RM105 today closer to RM80 (MPSJ's pass) with the promise that this model would bring the multi-storey more business.
2. MPSJ could provide a shuttle van to/from the multistorey car park during morning and evening rush hours to ease the inconvininece faced.
In conclusion, I personally
1. Agree that this issue is a problem
2. Like to use option 2: priority to the customer for shopfront parking
And I sincerely believe this is in the greater good of the rakyat of Subang Jaya.
