According to an exclusive report in local media outlet The Star, from November onwards, Kuala Lumpur City Council (DBKL) will no longer continue to clamp cars in popular areas throughout the city.
Allegedly, the move comes straight from Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan, the mayor himself, with sources revealing to StarMetro reporters that a meeting between all involved parties, including DBKL’s legal and finance departments, and parking enforcement, has already been held on the matter.
Previously, officials put a moratorium of car clamping right after the 14th General Election in May after local MPs lobbied to end the parking enforcement measure; however, recently, popular trafficked areas have started clamping again.
Brace yourselves Coconauts, because we’re going to go out on a limb here: This move is truly disappointing, and we say this as a driver who has had their car clamped no less than two times since they began to take such drastic measures.
For those readers unfamiliar with Kuala Lumpur traffic and parking issues, we’ll put it bluntly: Illegal parking is rampant, and the ensuing traffic jams that are caused by double-parked vehicles are appalling.
Having your car clamped is a pain in the *ss: You need to ring them to un-clamp your ride, a process that will have you waiting two to three hours — just enough time for you to think about your life choices, and wonder why you didn’t look for a legitimate parking space in the first place. When traffic officials arrive, you MUST settle your ticket right then and there: RM100. It’s painful, but ultimately win-win: You learn an expensive lesson, and DBKL collects immediate revenue.
City council’s inability to collect fines from driving tickets is a genuine issue, and the director of the company who had been tasked to clamp offending vehicles, Nik Haidi Nik Mohamad of Vista Summerose, divulged just how much an indifferent public owes the city in compound notices: Of the RM1 billion (US$240 million) in fines that have been issued, only RM8 million (US$1.9 million) have been paid since 2010. That’s right, he’s claiming that less than 1 percent of traffic fines are being paid.
On average, DBKL clamps 915 cars per day, and issues 3,600 compound notices daily.
While these numbers have not been corroborated by DBKL, and they’re coming from a man with a vested interest in keeping the clamping regime in place, it’s difficult to deny the widespread indifference many drivers have towards settling their tickets.
DBKL has spent nearly half the year trying to encourage motorists to pay their fines by offering steep discounts for those willing to come forward to settle: A notice that had would have originally set you back RM300 could be cleared for just RM30, yet according to The Star, only 104,646 tickets were actually cleared.
While it is unclear what the mayor’s solution for illegal parking is, we’re all ears as to how to he plans to ensure that motorists respect the rules of the road if there aren’t going to be any actual consequences for not doing so.
