{"id":237,"date":"2015-05-25T20:15:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-25T12:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mysabah.com\/wordpress\/?p=237"},"modified":"2023-06-27T09:02:46","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T01:02:46","slug":"parking-war-in-kota-kinabalu-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mysabah.com\/wordpress\/parking-war-in-kota-kinabalu-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Parking War in Kota Kinabalu City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to Nielsen Global Survey of Automotive Demand<\/a>, almost every Malaysian owns a car, the third highest rate of car ownership in the world. Kota Kinabalu City (KK) has a population of over 600,000, imagine what it is like when half a million cars compete for 10,314 public parking lots (exclude private parking spaces) in and around KK every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No
Pic: No Parking, No Parking, No Parking… We mean it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inevitably parking has become a daily battle with local authority, ill-mannered motorists and even criminals. For my case, going to KK takes me only 20 minutes but finding a parking can take more than half an hour sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No-No
Pic: No-No Parking Zone = Yes? LOL<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yea city life is tough. In this article are just some trivia and interesting photos of parking in Sabah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Most Annoying Parking Experience<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dealing with retarded and selfish people is unavoidable. Well, I’ll just laugh them off by looking at them in amusing way. Feel free to share your experience and photo in comment section too. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“No matter how well you dress, how expensive is your car, how decent you appear to others… How you park and drive reveals the true you<\/strong>, when you think no friend & relative are there to judge how you drive other nuts on the road.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

1. “Reserve” a Parking Space by Object<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Some people would attempt any mean to reserve a parking lot, for example, placing an object to “book” the spot. Public parking lot is provided on 1st-come-1st-serve basis, so it’s illegal to block others from using it<\/a>. For shop \/ individual that needs this public space for their business (e.g. car washing, cafe), they must rent the space from DBKK (and the monthly fee isn’t cheap).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"block<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decade ago, after you parked your car, a street kid would approach you asking for “protection fee”, or a foreigner carried a bucket of water offering lousy car cleaning service. If you refused to give what they wanted, you would find scratches on your car later. Luckily, it’s no longer happening in KK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Jaywalking Pedestrians<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Be careful in your reverse parking. There are always some idiots who are oblivious of the reverse signal and walk pass your rear while your car is moving. It’s a miracle that such morons can live more than 20 years old. I hope they won’t breed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"occupy
You can easily tell if a person is a loser by looking at the way s\/he walks and cross the street. Stay away from them because they always blame others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Non-Stop False Alarm<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Out of the blue a car alarm could set off for no reason, its 200-decibel siren can go on for hour and the owner is missing in action. The repeating high-pitch noise is a mental torture to everyone living or working nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"4WD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They better stop using those hypersensitive alarm that is program to prevent mosquito from stealing their car, or nobody will bother to check, when the real car thief breaks in next time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Slow Loris<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

While leaving, if I notice any car waiting for my parking spot, I’ll start my car and leave as soon as I can. But not everyone does the same. It is truly frustrating when someone dilly-dally (taking time to check their phone and touch up their lipstick, etc) before starting the engine and leave, though they can see you waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"bad
Pic: Thinking outside the box is good. Parking outside the box is #fail #parking. In fact, traffic police can compound this car RM70 for improper parking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t mean to be sexist, but in my experience it’s always women. People will see you as a beautiful person if you are considerate and thoughtful, so you can save your make-up for later then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Double-Parking<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I can hear the loud YES in your mind. Do these selfish motorists think their fathers own the road?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"hogging
Pic: hogging two… no, three parking spots<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Double Parking happens everyday, everywhere in KK because of lack of enforcement. Since our Uncle Police is always busy escorting VIP convoy, I’ll be more than happy to lend a hand. If they give me the right to issue summons to these cockroach motorists, I’ll do it for FREE. Double parking is simply an act of selfish and laziness.<\/strong> If we are willing to park further away, we never need to double park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"note
Photo Source: Sabah hitzFM Facebook<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come on lah, if you must double park, at least leave a phone number on your dashboard<\/strong>, so the “victim” can call you to move your car away. It’s so irritating to honk a long time but the owner is nowhere to be seen. I would be lucky if the car didn’t have its handbrake on, so I could push it aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not everyone is kind to write you an educational note. One day you will get karma for bad parking, like this video<\/a> (frankly I also feel the impulse to do the same thing). I know this is wrong, but sorry I have no compassion to what happened to that car. This is a good message to those suckers who like to double park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"chicken
\"chicken<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did ask Uncle Police how to deal with double parking. One of them says we can call 088-310273 (traffic police in KK) and a traffic police will issue a RM100 summon to the motorist who blocks your car<\/strong>. Unfortunately, we can’t request them to tow away the stupid car, unless it obstructs the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave Nothing (and Nobody) in your Car<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Isn’t it a common sense not to leave anything in our car to prevent break-in? There have been news like burglar stole a quarter million of cash left in the vehicle. As there are so many fools in KK, I did seriously consider thievery a better career.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"parking<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Many locals still have the attitude like “Oh, don’t worry, it’s just a briefcase with office documents, nothing valuable”. But to thief, this might be a treasure chest with laptop, wallet or phone inside. They are even willing to smash car window just for a few coins, like what happened to my friend, who cried, “You only want the coins mah, I give you lah! Why broke my window?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"cart
In another case, a car of my female friend broke down. A group of “friendly” people came to help. She was so happy and thought she was hot, then she found that her wallet and handphone on the dashboard went missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"chair
Pic: reserved parking lot with tickets, look fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also heard many cases that people left their car unlocked for only a few minutes then their car was hijacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"parking
\"VIP
Losing money or your car is bad enough, but the worst thing is when your car disappears with your child. I guess you still remember the shocking news of You-You<\/em>, a 3-year-old boy who was abducted in the car left by his father at a petrol station in Kampung Air last year. The car was found but the boy vanished until today<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"no
Negligent parents can be sued under Child Act if they leave their kid in the car. Just for a few minutes of convenience, you would regret for life. Sadly, history teaches us that similar tragedy will happen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Park at your Own Risk?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some private car parks put up a “Park at your Own Risk” exemption clause at their entrance or have it printed on parking ticket. Based on Consumer Protection Act 1999, if car park operators charge you for using their parking space, they are liable to any damages to vehicles parked in their premises<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"limited<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many years consumers had been fooled by car operators this way, until 24 Apr 2009, a magistrates court in Penang ordered a car park operator to pay a lawyer RM1,668 for items stolen from his car parked at an open air car park near Komtar. Knowledge is Power indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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