Parking a challenge to motorists, officials alike

Parking a challenge to motorists, officials alike

JAKARTA (JP): You have to be at a nearby building by 7:00 p.m. You allow 30 minutes for the drive through congested streets and reckon you will arrive on time. You pull into the building's parking lot and your heart sinks: you forgot to factor in the 15 minutes of driving up the winding floors of the garage. The hunt for a parking space has begun.

Jakartans are slowly getting used to multi-storied parking garages. Mainly due to the city's campaign to keep parking off the streets by insisting that new buildings over four stories must have a multi-story garage.

The existence of the law proves that building owners don't really have the well-being of their tenants at heart.

However, a private parking manager insists that the municipality is inconsistent with its own rules.

"We know garages are necessary and we don't even expect a return in investment," says Wahyudi PH from King Plaza in Pasar Baru shopping center.

"But what's the use if authorities let people park under no parking signs? There would be more people parking in the garages if officials stuck to their own rules."

Jl. Pintu Air Raya in Pasar Baru was indeed full of cars parked under no stopping and no parking signs last week. A parking attendant said you could simply bargain with the police over the ticket.

"You pay Rp 10,000 when the officer asks for Rp 20,000," the man in a municipality parking uniform said.

The administration, then under Governor Suprapto, designated Pasar Baru as a pedestrian zone in 1985. "We wanted to avoid shoppers competing with cars on the streets," said Bun Yamin Ramto, then Suprapto's deputy.

"The long term aim was to widen the pedestrian zone to the left and right of Pasar Baru when there were enough parking garages."

Now there are five buildings with an average capacity of 500 cars. King Plaza's garage was the last to be built, in 1989.

The municipality built its one and only garage in 1981, in the dense Glodok business area in West Jakarta. It was a failure.

"We didn't succeed making Glodok into a pedestrian zone simply because there was inadequate parking."

Traffic has now worsened in Glodok. The total lack of enforcement of parking laws and lazy drivers are easily illustrated by the stacks of empty floors in the garage and the alleys teaming with parked cars.

"Indonesian drivers are too lazy to climb high," said Nunung Anang, the chief of the city's garage. Cars were parked in double rows on the lower floors while every floor above the fourth floor was empty.

The city parking authority, BP Parkir, decided to lower the monthly subscription from Rp 37,500 to Rp 22,500 in 1987 in a bid to attract more motorists.

Anang said the aim of multi-story garages wasn't profit, but to keep parking off the streets and reduce congestion. So far it has not been successful, although Anang says there are 540 car owners who pay for spaces.

"They find it safe to park here," he said, even though the fourteen security monitors have not worked since 1988. The repair cost of Rp 1 million was apparently too expensive.

"We patiently helped to locate their cars while they insisted they remembered where they parked."

People still complain about the ramps being too steep, the corners too sharp and are reluctant to pay Rp 500 to wind up the floors to find that there aren't any spots left.

Reconsider

Drivers learning to negotiate the ramps and turns inside garages and the law regarding multi-story garages won't help if BP Parkir, the city parking authority, does not support its own policies.

Soemaryono says BP Parkir has proposed "a reconsideration" of the no parking zone around Pasar Baru.

"When Indonesians see stores with cars parked in front of them, they are attracted. Its good for business. They don't mind the congestion."

Wahyudi, the King Plaza parking manager, complained about the parking violations on nearby streets.

Not long after he took his report, with photographs, to authorities, the no parking signs were removed. Later they were reinstalled and, of course, ignored.

Former deputy governor Ramto says that public interest must come first in traffic management.

"The policy to encourage parking garages is part of making the most of what road space we have. We know the growth of our road space is very slow compared to the growth of cars," he added.

Until the authorities make up their mind about whose interest to cater to, no serious discussion about parking building design will take place. Only then will the hunt for a parking space be fruitful. (anr/als/jsk)