Too many season parking spaces defeats purpose of parking rate hike

Was the increase in rates just a ploy to earn extra revenue while the parking problem remains unresolved, wonders Sharp Observer.

I refer to the issue about Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) outsourcing parking collection to Yayasan Wilayah.

In this context I wish to raise two questions.

First, why did DBKL not outsource it straight to the party carrying out the collection rather than outsourcing it to Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan, which in turn outsourced it to a third party. Pretty bizarre and mind-boggling, I say. Was the collection outsourced to the foundation merely so that it could then be outsourced to Vista Summerose as mentioned?

Second, so many public parking bays in Kuala Lumpur have been reserved for season parking and marked in red. This has created an even more acute parking problem. One of the excuses given when the parking rates were raised was to ensure people don’t hog parking spaces.

By dishing out so many season parking bays, the availability of remaining parking bays is limited anyway. We can just assume the increase in rates and the many season parking bays are just a ploy to earn extra revenue and nothing to do with solving the parking problem.

I suggest all the season parking bays be cancelled at the next renewal and returned to public use straight away. In Bangsar, Taman Tun and Hartamas, an inordinate number of bays are marked out in red for this. Absolutely ridiculous.

I urge the new Federal Territory minister to cancel the outsourcing and bring it back to DBKL control so that all revenue can fully go to DBKL, which can then put the proceeds to good use such as repairing low-cost apartments, which have become an eyesore.

Sharp Observer is the pseudonym of a regular follower of aliran.com