Parking meter on Jalan Sabang
Jakarta’s Government is trying to get the city’s parking sector into the 21st century, replacing the preman-led parking mafia with actual parking meters. The government has installed meters in several areas, including Jalan Sabang, Jalan Boulevard in Kelapa Gading, and Jalan Falatehan in South Jakarta.
But old habits are apparently hard to break. Recently the government was forced to fire five parking attendants on Jalan Sabang, who were supposed to be helping people using the parking meters but were instead keeping their parking money for themselves.
Part of the reason people are misusing the meters is because the current regulations for using them are weakly enforced. So management company Jakarta Perparkiran is pushing to increase the penalties for people not properly using the parking meters properly, with fines 20 times higher than the normal rate.
“So the officer will scan the vehicle license plates so they can discover whether each car has paid or not and the amount of time that has passed. If the vehicle’s time is already up, its wheels will be locked, so that if they want to go home later they’ll have to pay the fine, I want to make it 20 times the parking rates, ” said Jakarta Perparkiran Head Sunardi Sinaga at City Hall on Monday, as quoted by Kompas.
Sunardi said the new policy would maximize the use of the parking meters and help increase revenues while also preventing attendants from taking bribes.
