In a bid to address the issue, the Depok administration has proposed revising the 2012 bylaw on transportation to add an article stipulating the requirement for any car owner to have a garage.

“One of the articles in the revised bylaw will require a purchaser to provide evidence of ownership of a garage before buying any four-wheeled vehicle,” Depok Transportation Agency head Dadang Wihana told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

The city administration’s proposal of an additional article on garage ownership came following mounting complaints from residents reporting that car owners are using public spaces to park their cars.

The administration officially proposed the bylaw revision to the Depok Legislative Council on Wednesday.

Arbitrary parking is rampant in jam-packed Depok. At Grand Depok City housing complex, residents who own more than one car park their additional cars on the streets of the complex.

“There are no rules that prevent residents from parking on the street inside the neighborhood. Of course, there is an unwritten rule that a resident shouldn’t park his car in front of another resident’s house,” said Alvin Pradana, a security guard at Cluster Aster in the complex.

He also mentioned that most houses usually had two parking spaces each.

“There are a few residents in this neighborhood that have three cars and they park one of them on the street in front of their house. As of now, I haven’t received any complaint from other residents regarding the matter,” said Alvin.

Another resident, Reyno, said his family owned two cars despite only having one parking space. He argued that owning the cars was necessary because of the lack of public transportation available in the area with only one angkot (public minivan) serving a route accessible to the complex residents.

His father uses one car to commute to work and the other car is used by the rest of the family. Reyno said he had yet to encounter problems with his neighbors with regard to parking.

“Collectively as a neighborhood, the residents don’t mind as long as the cars are parked in a way that does not block the street,” he said.

Trisakti University urban expert Nirwono Joga said the city administration must first offer an alternative solution for the community before implementing the garage-ownership regulation.

“As of now, Depok doesn’t have sufficient integration of public transportation that covers the whole Depok area and that also connects with Greater Jakarta. The administration must also provide alternatives for residents that have limitations on building extra space for their vehicles,” he said.

Nirwono suggested possible solutions such as building public parking lots in residential areas and also setting a time limit for parking on the street.

Nirwono’s recommendations were also in line with the opinion of transportation observer and head of the Jakarta Transportation Council (DTKJ) Ellen Tangkudung.

“The proposed garage policy will have no effect in solving the illegal parking dilemma since a large number of residents don’t have any land to build additional parking spaces. The administration should focus instead on extending bus routes that reach as many urban and rural neighborhoods in Depok as possible,” she said.

More than 1.1 million cars and motorbikes are registered in the city of around 2.3 million, according to Statistics Indonesia’s latest data. (bry)

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