Our Desk | Parking ‘Blues’

Renato Marques

Recently, we bore witness to some criticism from people regarding the new measures proposed by the government that changed the duration and tariffs of parking meters.
This measure comes as just one of a series of unpopular measures regarding vehicle parking in Macau that included a rumor of a suspension of all (or some) monthly passes in the public parking lots of the territory.  This is to be addressed soon in a debate at the Legislative Assembly between the lawmakers and the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Mr Raimundo do Rosario.
While some of these measures did not receive much approval from citizens, they do have some scientific support.  It is important, however, to approach these measures step-by-step.
Basically, parking meters were invented to discourage drivers from parking their vehicles in the streets for long periods of time. By concept, these devices are located in areas of cities where there is a great demand for parking spaces, such as shopping and services areas, government departments, etc. The purpose is simple, as mentioned before, to give the opportunity for more people to park in these convenient areas in order to take care of their personal matters. The prices and duration of the parking allowed by the meters must also follow demand, in a way of providing rotation when being used. Another characteristic of parking meters is that they require pre-payment.  You must therefore know in advance how long you plan to occupy your spot.
However, what do you do when you need more time or you just cannot stop what you are doing to go and add another coin? Parking lots, after all, should provide  drivers with the opportunity to leave their vehicles for longer periods of time, such as for several hours or even days or weeks.
By definition, these parking lots are less expensive (on the long stays) than the meters. They also provide a more protected parking spot, and are specifically made for long stays.  Sometimes they are less convenient in terms of location and require more time to park and retreive vehicles. The hourly-based payment is done when you want to leave, according to the number of hours of your stay.
The issue, as we all know by now is that, according to the statistics, every month there are 900 new cars in Macau and public parking spaces only have capacity for about 20 percent of all cars circulating in the city. Although this problem is known and has been addressed for quite some time, it appears that there is not a strong desire to solve it, or at least to minimize it.
Apparently, the public parking facilities and their private or semi-private administrations can decide on issues freely, limiting for example, the number of days a car can be parked without being moved, among other regulations with doubtful legal base.
If all these problems cannot be clearly resolved and elicit fear among many, one thing seems to be clear. The only beneficiaries of this uncertainty so far have been the parking administrations of private buildings that rushed to increase the rental fees on their parking spaces in order to profit more from scared residents fearful of losing their parking spots if the monthly tickets are cancelled. The prices boomed, in some cases to astronomical amounts of HKD3,500 per month in some areas of the city center.
It remains to be seen what kind of cars residents will now aim to buy in order to justify a so-called “luxurious” expense, such as that of parking.