Don’t be surprised when you see cling-wrapped parking meters around Petaling Jaya. They’re officially going by way of the dodo. The Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) has made the decision to remove all parking meters in the township after constant complaints from motorists.
As reported by The Star, most of the standalone meters have been cling-wrapped and are awaiting removal before end of December.
So why is Petaling Jaya going backwards? The main reason MBPJ is switching to “scratch-and-display” coupons stemmed from the fact that meters were constantly faulty and in bad condition. The municipal council terminated parking concessionaire Godell Parking Sdn Bhd in June this year.
It was reported that over half of 700 parking meters, covering 21,000 parking bays in the city were faulty.
Since September, MBPJ has made coupons the principal method for parking payment. According to Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Mohd Aziz Mohd Zain said that people have preferred the coupon method as it is easier.
He added that womenfolk also prefer the coupon method as it was safer, and did not require them to walk to the parking meter for the ticket, exposing them to unnecessary “potential criminals.”
Over 241 agents including convenient stores have been appointed to sell coupons. Motorists can also buy coupons from MBPJ’s headquarters in Jalan Yong Shook Lin, MBPJ Kota Damansara branch and from the EZ-Pay mobile van.
Coupons are sold at 60sen per hour, with a booklet of 10 sheets costing MYR6. There’s also a monthly pass that is sold for MYR100.
MBPJ will oversee the sale of the coupons from January till April 2018, thereafter, the management of coupon sales will be outsourced.
The mayor said that MBPJ has received 18 proposals from companies interested to introduce mobile-app driving parking solutions.
What do you think of scratch-and-display coupons as opposed to parking meters as parking management solutions?
Via The Star | Header image credit: The Star
