C

span class="caption">Courtesy of www.parkirlubangs*t.tumblr.com: Fail: As seen in this photo, Pria Purnama’s website seeks to shame, humiliate, embarrass and otherwise call attention to parking atrocities in the nation’s capital. Courtesy of www.parkirlubangs*t.tumblr.comA couple of months ago, Pria Purnama struggled to find a decent parking spot in one of the city’s malls. The web developer, in a desperate need to go the bathroom, was frustrated with the many drivers who parked their cars carelessly.

“I drove my car in circles several times before I decided to leave the mall. Actually, there were many parking spots that would have been available if it weren’t for those irresponsible drivers,” Pria told The Jakarta Post.

He said the unpleasant experience was not the first for him, adding that similar episodes have happened before.

On May 8, he decided to create a Twitter account to express his irritation. The account, @parkirlubangsat, had gained more than 400 followers as of Monday. A blog of similar name, parkirlubangsat.tumblr.com, is also available.

Through these online sites, the users may upload pictures portraying outrageous parking behavior of discourteous drivers, including their license plates.

In one of the photos, a motorcycle was parked on an overpass, blocking the pedestrian path. In other pictures, several cars were parked carelessly by the drivers, who ignored the lines of the parking spaces, troubling other drivers.

“It is a sort of wall of shame, the opposite to wall of fame, for those ‘not so bright drivers’,” said Pria, who was planning to produce mini stickers that bystanders could place on the offending vehicles.

Astari Laksmiwati, 26, found the @parkirlubangsat Twitter account “very amusing”, saying that it was an entertaining “social punishment”.

“Perhaps the relatives of the careless drivers, their significant others, or perhaps even the drivers’ themselves would see the hype. Thus, they would be humiliated and learn a lesson,” said Astari, who works as a digital consultant.

Sonny Harry B Harmadi, head of the Institute of Demography at the University of Indonesia’s School of Economics, applauded the idea behind the so-called “wall of shame” Twitter account, saying that it proves “many people still care about their city’s orderliness”.

“However, I think it is unwise to clearly show the license plates, because it may provoke some people to damage the cars physically,” he said.

Commenting on this, Pria said that he could not imagine that people would bother searching out the cars’ locations to vandalize them, but said that he would spend more time to censor the license plates from the pictures.

Pria’s initiative has not only attracted attention from Jakarta’s “netizens”, but has also been welcomed by the Jakarta Police.

Comr. Iwan Saktiadi, coordinator of the Jakarta Police Traffic Management Center’s (TMC) Twitter service, said that he was pleased with the fact that more people became aware of wild parking behavior.

“Although they use a sarcastic tone, basically, they just care about the city,” he said.

Urban expert Sonny said that the TMC should collaborate with social sites to provide them with information over irresponsible drivers, but Iwan rejected the idea.

“If they want to report something to us, they can use our existing official services,” said Iwan.

The TMC currently has a range of Internet-based information services, from website lantas.metro.polri.go.id, Twitter account @TMCPoldaMetro and a Facebook account under the username TMC Polda Metro Jaya.

Created in early 2010, @TMCPoldaMetro has gained more than 800,000 followers. (asa)