Monday, October 26, 2009

Inadequate parking for visitors at HDB estates

A few days ago, Today paper printed my letter regarding inadequate parking spaces for visitors at HDB estates, when many spaces are reserved for residents and are unused during the day.

HDB has replied that they have to strike a balance between the needs of residents and visitors. I hope that the person who replies for the HDB are aware of the following:
a) The inadequate spaces for visitors occur in many HDB estates
b) The situation has worsened during the past one or two years due to the expansion in car population
c) It is glaring to see many "reserved spaces" that are underutilised during the day
The HDB reply said that the spaces have to be reserved for residents at night. Surely, they can make the reserved spaces available for vistiors during the day (i.e. before 7 pm) rather than kept underutilised?
I hope that our planners will open up their minds and also visit the parking lots to get a feel of the actual situation.

Tan Kin Lian

5 comments:

  1. I think it is a good idea to have reserved lots. People do it at office bulidings, condo's and clubs as well, don't they?

    Best Regards,

    ReplyDelete
  2. With or without reserved lots, HDB will never be able to please everyone. Since the resident are staying near the HDB carpark naturally they should be given the priority in securing these lots be it day or night. More over they pay the monthly carpark lots too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is wasteful to see many spaces that are "reserved for season parking" and are unused during the day, while there is a shortage of parking spaces for visitors.

    We need to use our limited spaces more efficiently. We should not be selfish and have spaces reserved for some people that are not used.

    This applies to commercial buildings where the spaces are reserved for top managers and are not used also.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is slightly off topic, but in the US, every business requires a certain number of spots reserved for Handicapped drivers. It's a similar idea. There are usually 5 or 6 spots closest to the building and they are rarely used. There should be a better way, like spots that can be converted from Handicapped to Regular depending on demand.

    Something like this might work for your HDB parking lots. Understand the demand, and depending on the need, reserver more or less at different times.

    ReplyDelete
  5. REX Comments
    Firstly, i don't have any problems parking in HDB car park lots. Perhaps Mr Tan has been driving into the park lot during peak hours where of course traffic is higher and one has to be patient to wait 10 or 15 minutes. People come and go, so waiting for some minutes is reasonable. This happens in all shopping mall car parks too, one has to be very patient during peak hours...

    Secondly, hdb reserved lots are often "un-reserved" at certain times. In Ang mo kio, many red-lots are actually available for public use during day time from 7 am to 7 pm. It is only at night that the lots are reserved as the residents are assumed homebound. The hdb also reserved lots on the lower levels of multi storey car parks to benefit residents. Outsiders have to go higher up to get lots. This is reasonable.

    In summary, i am happy with the hdb parking system which i use quite frequently. The only complaint I have is that they seem to be implementing more auto-gated system these days and you can't "cheat" on car-park coupon by tearing the tabs 15 minutes extra time!!!

    REX

    ReplyDelete

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