Monthly car park passholders to create association

A group of more than 200 residents who hold monthly passes for public parking lots have joined forces to establish an association. This follows the government’s expressed intention of canceling the monthly passes scheme. Unhappy with the new policy, they’re hoping to further their discussions with the government, said Victor Lei, who is one of the monthly pass holders and president of the International Logistics and Forwarding Association of Macau.
Mr Lei told the Times that over 200 monthly pass holders gathered on Monday to discuss launching a committee or association in order to help them deal with the government’s new policy.
Last month, the government announced that it would be putting forward a proposal to cancel monthly passes, while also increasing parking lot fees within eleven local public car parks.
The Traffic Affairs Consultative Committee stressed that nearly 2,500 parking spaces could be released once the new measure is implemented.
The Committee went even further to suggest that the cancelation of monthly passes should be implemented in all public parking lots.
The government announced its plan while presenting this year’s Policy Address with the hope that it would help to reduce the number of vehicles on Macau’s roads.
Mr Lei told the Times, “We would like to establish an association in order to obtain updated information from the Macau government and then to share it with all monthly pass holders.”
He recalled that a great many of the residents who hold monthly passes have been making use of this system to gain access to public car parking spaces for the past 10 to 20 years.
Furthermore, he stressed, “In the past, no matter what type of building it was, commercial or private, there were no car park spaces. So once the government offered public parking lots to society, most of us were happy to relocate to areas around the public parking, in order to improve our quality of living.”
Mr Lei said the group of residents understand that the government now has a new policy, but recalled that they have not “invited people to discuss it further.” “They did not assess the true situation and society’s needs,” he added.
A great many of the residents who joined the meeting on Monday hold monthly passes for the public parking lot located near the New Yaohan mall, known as the Pak Wu parking lot. However, Mr Lei said that monthly pass holders of the 11 public parking lots had also been invited.
He also revealed that, “According to unofficial figures, there are about 2,000 monthly pass holders, including people from a wide range of areas, namely businessmen and lawyers.”
Lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho also took part in Monday’s meeting to provide his support. “They have discussed the matter further and they’re trying to set up an organizing committee and later an association to advocate for their rights. They’ve reached a consensus and they’re outlining their strategies now,” he stated.
Local artist and curator António Conceição Junior also recently raised concerns over the new measure in a column published in newspaper Hoje Macau.
Mr Conceição recalled that such a measure could play a role in actually increasing traffic on Macau’s roads. More importantly, however, the cancelation of monthly passes for public parking lots means “revoking one [of citizens’] basic rights, given that in Macau not all residents living in building complexes have the right to a garage.”
Mr Conceição pointed out that residents wanting access to a garage to park their cars may have to either buy or rent one, as their apartments do not necessarily include a garage.
“They’ve taken away my quality of life, they’ve polluted the environment to an extent that I lost my right to an enjoyable walk, and now they even want to take away the small space where I still have the right to quietly park my car,” he added.
Recent figures released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) show that the total number of licensed motor vehicles in Macau reached 241,955 at the end of March, up by 5.2 percent year-on-year.