Motoring Today Column

Aug 14, 2019

Parking space is a factor that leads to the traffic problem.

Observe where bottlenecks happen along major roads. It's always where there is a shopping mall, restaurants, banks, or schools.

Along Espana Avenue, coming from Quezon City, traffic crawls near the Welcome Rotunda. Clustered along that road are restaurants.

On a Sunday, traffic builds up where there is a church. Because motorists tolerate this, private vehicles now park on the outermost lane of the road, jeepneys loiter on the next lane, while passing vehicles load and unload on the third lane. And so, other vehicles have only one more lane to pass the area.

The reason why vehicles are parked on public roads is obvious. There are very limited - or no parking spaces - provided by the commercial establishments for their customers.

The recent proposal of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) urging mayors to convert vacant lots into pay parking spaces can be a good solution to clearing the roads of stubborn motorists and PUV drivers.

In a recent news story, DILG Undersecretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya said local chief executives (LCEs) might have to exercise their convincing powers to entice vacant lot owners to accede to the proposal.

"These vacant lots may also be utilized as public utility vehicle (PUV) terminals and other public purposes which can come in handy with the continuous nationwide road clearing efforts being implemented under DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2019-121 of Secretary Eduardo M. Año.

Malaya noted that private lot owners can earn extra money for letting motorists rent their idle space, while the local government unit (LGU) will have a place for vehicles that are obstructing roads due to illegal parking.

"Mayor Francis Zamora of San Juan City will be converting their idle lots owned by the city government for parking purposes. In times like this, we need to think outside of the box. We encourage our mayors to step up and work closely with private homeowners and entities so that their idle and vacant lots can also be converted to pay parking spaces," Malaya said in the report.

Malaya urged the country' mayors to map out plans citing a possible parking space negotiation with vacant landowners, if done properly, will be a great help in easing traffic and ridding streets of illegal parking.

He said the LGU can consider giving discounts in the payment of business permits and other regulatory fees to land owners to convince them to support the initiative.

This suggestion should also be taken up by the barangay captains to solve road obstructions in private villages. There are still vacant lots in many villages which can be converted into parking spaces. Those parking spaces can also service customers of restaurants, banks, schools and even auto service (talyer) businesses.

After business hours, the parking spaces can be used by residents who have no garages - for a fee, of course.

In a village where a colleague lives, parking has become a problem to residents who have the misfortune of having a "talyer" and used car dealer business operating in front of their houses, at a street defined as a residential street.

Despite many attempts by government agencies to keep the customers' cars from occupying all available sidewalks and roadsides, the problem persists - and is tolerated. One cannot begrudge the success of the talyer business reflected by the many customers whose vehicles overflow from the talyer's two lots. And a visitor to the village cannot help wonder how this talyer's successful business has escaped the eyes of the barangay captain whose office is in the same street.

In this case, a pay parking area will surely offer a win-win solution to the barangay, the business owner, and to the residents.

Why not? Converting a village's empty lots to parking areas sounds like a good win-win solution.

Happy Motoring!!!

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