Increase in night charges will not solve parking crunch

By mdfaris – August 3rd, 2010

A majority of Yahoo! Fit to Post readers who gave their feedback insist that the increase in night parking charges will not solve the parking crunch.

From November onwards, night parking charges at over 1, 300 carparks will double from $2 to $4.

The increase will be implemented at over 1,300 carparks islandwide with the night parking scheme, which allows non-residents to park their cars and vehicles overnight. This makes up more than 65 per cent of the 1,810 HDB carparks and and 9 per cent of total URA carparks.

Close to 150 Yahoo! FTP readers responded to this blog with some suggesting multi-storey carparks be built while others urged the government to think of other alternatives to counter the problem.

FTP reader chrice, said “There are way too many cars in Singapore as each family might own 2-3 cars. Even if everyone purchases seasonal parking tickets, there are not enough slots for the area.”

Another reader, laoban128 wrote, “Think of solutions, calculate the demands on carparks and take into account future demand and then increase the supply gradually to cope.”

But some like kentlim26 supported the move to increase parking charges.

“If there are no car park charges, there will be so many cars parked all over the place”, he wrote.

Another reader, sgturtle, said, “Yes, it’s time to up the parking fee to increase the cost of owning cars and reduce the car population.”

The HDB and Urban Development Authority issued a joint statement on Monday saying that most carparks that allow overnight parking for non-resisdents were “heavily utilised due to higher parking demand”.

“This has resulted in residents with season parking tickets facing difficulties in getting a parking space when they return home at night,” they said in a statement.