Parking in Jakarta

Parking in Jakarta

From Neraca

Parking motor vehicles in Jakarta is more expensive than in other cities in Indonesia. In Yogyakarta, parking your motorcycle costs Rp 100 or Rp 200. In Jakarta, one pays Rp 500 for the same service, which does not include the cost of storing your helmet with the parking attendant for safekeeping.

If a motorist spends at least Rp 5,000 a day for gasoline, a motorcyclist only needs about half of that amount. Thus, relatively speaking, parking fees in Jakarta are expensive compared to the expenditure for gasoline. If you go to several places in the city, and every time must park your vehicle, the amount of money spent for parking increases accordingly.

I suggest that parking fees in Jakarta be brought back to the previous rates, i.e. Rp 200 or Rp 300 for motorcycles and Rp 500 for automobiles.

After all, parking in Jakarta is not fully secure. Parking attendants are not responsible for losses because parking slips state that losses are not the responsibility of the parking management. All the risks at the parking lot are borne solely by the people parking their vehicles.

The providers of parking facilities apparently are saying that they only provide a site that is simply a public place where no one but the government has authority. If the people who manage parking in Jakarta are only parasites using public land, such as sidewalks and empty lots, their presence is only a burden on the community.

I hope parking facilities in Jakarta will be managed with the objective of providing security for the vehicles parked there. Parking lots should not be sites of extortion. They need to be managed professionally and any losses must be the responsibility of the management.

As for automobiles, parking fees should vary according to the type of vehicle, like in Bangkok. There, the parking fee for a Mercedes or a BMW is higher than for a commercial vehicle or a minibus. This system could be adopted in Jakarta.

A. KAMIL

Jakarta