The Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has introduced new parking rates for DBKL-owned parking bays within the central business district (CBD) in Kuala Lumpur.
To that effect, from today (18th July 2016) onwards, parking charges will increase by 150%.
Amongst the affected areas are high activity zones such as Bukit Bintang, Bukit Damansara (Damansara Heights), Sri Hartamas, Desa Hartamas, Solaris Mont Kiara, Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI), and Bangsar where 75% – 100% parking spaces are taken up during peak hours.
The hourly parking charges in the CBD has been increased from 80sen an hour to RM2 for the 1st hour. According to the rates published by DBKL, drivers will need to pay RM2 for the 1st hour and RM3 for the 2nd hour, and RM3 for the subsequent hours. If you were to park at a DBKL-owned parking bay in a high activity zone for a full day (7:30am – 6pm), you will need to fork out more than RM30 a day for just parking alone.
The Star quoted Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Mohd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz as saying that the increase of parking rates was not profit driven but the only way to ease traffic congestion in the city and encourage people to carpool.
“We want to free up as many street parking spaces in the city and encourage people to take public transport or carpool to the city. I know I am going to be very unpopular, but it has to be done because traffic in Kuala Lumpur is already bursting at the seams,’’ Amin Nordin said.
He also shared data obtained from the Road Transport Department (JPJ) and the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) to justify his decision for the high parking charges:
- Based on figures by JPJ, 50,000 new cars are registered every month in Kuala Lumpur.
- The number of vehicles entering the city every day is at a staggering 3.5 million.
- According to a SPAD survey, 70% of the cars going into the city centre are single-occupant vehicles (SOV).
In short, out of the 3.5 million cars going into the city every day, 2.4 million (70% of 3.5 million) are SOV. On top of worsening the current traffic situation, it has also made looking for sparking space in the increasingly difficult, resulting in double-and-triple-parking on the roads.
That having said, on the maximum cap of 2 hours for parking at DBKL bays, Amin Nordin said that it will not be implemented yet as he wanted to give drivers a chance to get used to the new parking charges.
Meanwhile, zones outside the city will also see an increase in parking charges – RM1.50 per hour for high activity zones outside the city and RM1 per hour for zones outside the city. The areas affected are such as Brickfields, Taman Maluri, Cheras, Wangsa Maju, and Setapak. The new parking charges will be enforced in stages from now to 1st August.
UPDATE (20th July, 5pm):
Those who reside in or frequent TTDI won’t have to worry about the increase of parking charges anytime soon as the new rates have been scrapped with immediate effect.
Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Mohd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz explained that the decision was made as it is a residential township. He announced it after a meeting between DBKL and Federal Territories minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor earlier today (Wednesday, 20th July).
The last time that DBKL increased parking fees was back in 1984. Since then, DBKL has made several attempts (in 1997 and in 2001) to revise the parking rates.
Sources: Kuala Lumpur City Hall, The Star (1) (2).
