Who needs a garage when you can section off a bit of a public road and make it your private parking space, right? Wrong.
A household in Serang Baru, Bekasi, West Java is receiving scorn online after a TikTok video went viral showing that they have sectioned off a chunk of the public road in front of their house for their car, as their house lacks an actual garage.
The viral video caught the attention of the Serang Baru Police, who paid the family a visit and learned that this parking arrangement was not their initial plan.
“They just bought a new car, and they were going to park it in a space at a school nearby. But that school was closed off so they couldn’t park the car there,” Serang Baru Police Chief Josman Harianja told Detik today.
Police, along with Satpol PP (Public Order Agency), have dismantled the makeshift parking space and let the family go with a warning. It’s not yet clear where they are parking their car now.
To be fair, cars parked on public roads are a common sight in Indonesia – even on the narrowest of roads. This is often caused by people buying more cars than their garage can fit, or, as is the case here, people buying cars even though they don’t have a garage or carport at home.
Mandatory garage for car ownership is enforced through regional regulations. In Jakarta, violation of the regulation is an offense punishable by an IDR2 million (US$136) fine.
Bekasi lacks such a regulation. In 2020, an RW (community unit) made headlines for enforcing their own mandatory garage rule to prevent obstruction on their narrow streets.
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