Transport head suggests lawmaker promote gov’t concept of parking

The Transport Bureau (DSAT) has called for associations to better help the government promote and implement land transport policies.

Director of Transport Kelvin Lam made the suggestion in response to the lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho’s written inquiry, adding that local associations should persuade people to use public parking lots. Coutinho is part of the management of the Association of Workers in Public Services of Macau.

Coutinho’s inquiry noted local roadside parking spots are too small for ever-larger vehicles such as seven-seater cars and EVs.

Lam, in response, said “the basic dimensions” of such parking spots are 5 meters by 2 meters to 2.5 meters. However, he added, dimensions can fluctuate depending on geographical conditions and the number of spots, among other criteria.

In addition, the transport official said the government has been phasing out roadside parking, before noting that the city has 62 government-managed public parking lots, comprising 23,000 and 18,000 spaces for light vehicles and motorcycles respectively.

In another inquiry, lawmaker Ron Lam criticized the government proposal to increase monthly parking fees at seven public parking lots, namely Qingmao Border Checkpoint, Nam Van, Pak Vai, Vasco de Gama Garden, Edifício Cheng Chong, Pai Wai and Carlos D’Assumpção Plaza.

The DSAT has proposed the price rise to “increase the turnover rate” of these parking lots.

Citing bureau data, the lawmaker said that on average, the Qingmao parking lot has 65% occupancy and is ranked 28th in Macau. Of the 17 parking lots that have occupancy rates surpassing 80%, four are among those listed above. The lawmaker said the Carlos D’Assumpção Plaza parking lot has an average occupancy rate of only 38%.

Lam said a more flexible tariff should be adopted to help ease occupancy during office hours. A general price hike will not help with the situation, he said.

He also expressed dissatisfaction in increasing parking fees for motorcycles, because it will further discourage the use of parking lots, which is currently unpopular. Moreover, increasing monthly rentals will not help encourage monthly ticket users to discard their tickets and use hourly parking instead.

On the contrary, he said, drivers are wondering if the bureau is trying to push up parking spot rentals in affected neighborhoods.