Motorists irked by dysfunctional parking metres (Updated)

PETALING JAYA: Motorists want the local authorities to put up signage to inform of faulty parking meters or places where parking payment is not required.
This comes after many motorists found it an inconvenience to look for a functioning parking machine after they have parked their vehicle or to head over to the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) headquarters to have any summonses issued cancelled.
"It is not good enough if only the council's enforcement officers could have the list of faulty machines as they are not the ones going around looking for functioning parking machines after they have parked their vehicles.
"So probably MBPJ could put up some signage to inform us which machines are working so that we do not need to go around looking for one and this eventually would save us lots of time and take away lots of inconvenience," said a motorist who wished to be known as Liew when met at SS2 recently.
Meanwhile, another motorist who wished to be known only as Lee, said the city council could also put up banners stating the locations where no parking payment is required due to faulty parking machines.
Liew and Lee was among the many motorists who complained about the difficulties in finding a functioning parking machine to make their payment to avoid getting summonses.
It was previously reported by a local daily that there were more than 700 parking machines in the city that cater to some 21,000 parking bays but more than half of them were faulty.
Most of these faulty machines were located at busy commercial areas like SS2, PJ Old Town, Section 52, Damansara Uptown and Sunwaymas Commercial Centre.
Asked on MBPJ's proposal of parking coupons, most motorists have mixed reaction to the proposed idea with the positive feedback being they do not need to go around looking for parking machines and it provide an extra option for motorists.
However, some motorists also called for a proper study on the parking coupon to be conducted before it is implemented to prevent any abuse by any party.
"Instead of implementing a new parking system (parking coupon), probably a better management or maintenance of the machines would suffice.
"Or maybe just conduct a feasibility study on the parking coupon to see if it is really workable," said another motorist Ben when met at Damansara Uptown.
Echoing Ben's call, another motorist named Angel pointed out that the parking coupon system might create some inconvenience for those who are from other cities as they might have difficulty in purchasing it.
"These people might end up getting a summons while they are looking for the parking coupon vendor as they might have parked," Angel added.
It was reported that MBPJ is in the midst of discussing with its lawyers on the termination of services of the current parking concessionaire Godell Parking Sdn Bhd.
Once that is done, MBPJ is said to be ready to implement the parking coupon system before introducing the mobile application parking payment system.
Attempts to get MBPJ for comment on the list of areas of the faulty parking machines or parking coupons or even the mobile app parking payment were futile at press time.