TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Depok requires vehicle owners to have garage
The Depok administration in West Java has issued city Bylaw No
Change Size
T
span>The Depok administration in West Java has issued city Bylaw No. 2/2012 on traffic implementation, requiring car owners in the city to park their cars in a garage — effectively banning on-street parking.
Officials said the new regulation was a response to residents' complaints that rampant on-street parking had disrupted the flow of traffic in the city.
"Many residents complained about a lot of parked cars occupying roadsides, so we decided to pass the bylaw on traffic implementation," Depok deputy mayor Pradi Supriatna said on Jan. 9, as reported by kompas.com.
Pradi said the regulation was proposed to the city council in July 2019.
"We want to make the city more orderly. We want residents to understand that public facilities are not parking lots and that they should park their cars in their own garages," he said.
Depok Transportation Agency head Dadang Wihana said there were many car owners in Depok who did not have garages, so they parked their cars on the street in front of their homes or in nearby parks or fields.
"Many residents feel that rampant on-street parking has disrupted their daily activities, causing a lot of conflict between car owners and their neighbors. This new bylaw could be a solution to that problem," Dadang said on Dec. 8, 2019.
According to articles 34A and 34B of the newly passed Depok bylaw, any person or business owning a motorized vehicle must possess or have access to a garage, whether it is a personal garage, a rented garage or a communal garage. Those who fail to do so will receive a written warning and may be fined up to Rp 2 million (US$146).
Dadang said the bylaw would be fully implemented in 2022. He explained that the Rp 2 million fines would only be imposed after the two-year period.
"We need two years to fully implement the bylaw. It will take a year for the city administration to arrange the technical guidelines and the regulatory mechanisms and another year to inform residents about the regulation and to provide assistance and facilitation for them," he said.
Shinta Stiowati, a 23-year-old homemaker from Depok, said she supported the regulation even though she did not have a garage in her home.
“We don’t have a garage at our house because we don’t have a plot of land to build a garage. Besides, our house is located in a narrow alleyway so empty plots of land are sparse,” she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
She said that for the last two years her husband had parked the car in a market parking lot located about one kilometer from their home. Sometimes, he simply left the car at his office.
“We have to pay Rp 7,000 per day for the parking fee, and I have to pick up my husband with a motorcycle every time he parks the car at the market. But most of the time he leaves the car at the office and goes home by ojek [motorcycle taxi],” Shinta said, adding that every month they spent about Rp 100,000 in parking fees.
Shinta said the new bylaw would not affect her and her husband since they never parked their cars on the roadside. “To be honest, I support the new bylaw since I know on-street parking really disturbs other road users.”
Another Depok resident, 26-year-old Asyauqi, said it was fine for car owners to park on the roadside as long as they did it within residential compounds and not on public roads.
“I do park my car on the roadside, but I do it inside my housing complex. It shouldn’t be a problem since it’s on private property and not in a public space,” he said.
