Car Parking

Car park provision is always associated with the economic activities. It is an essential service instead of money making instrument. Thereby, it is wrong to prioritise the income generation over the overall strategy for transportation when drafting a car parking policy. However, many of the institutions, be it the local authorities or building owners ignored this fact. Some charge absorbitant price because the demand is high and some sold the parking right for instant return of investment. While charging higher fee as a controlling measure to discourage long term parking in a busy commercial centre can be considered as part of the parking policy, the same cannot be said for some area without parking problem. Hence, providing free parking should be considered if the local circumstance warrant that to be done. For example, providing a more organised and centralised parking bays at the school vicinity in which a lot of parent parking their cars at the road side waiting for the school session finished can be a solution for the traffic congestion.

Car parking policy can be a good instrument to allievieate the traffic problem in the city centre. If the demand is higher, then short term parking should be encouraged. This will discourage car parks being occupied for longer hours. On top of that, efficient public transportation will also encourage people to not come to the city centre with private mode of transportation.

I presume drafting the car parking policy is not the sole responsibility of the people in financial management, but rather transportation planning and enforcement should also be involved.