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There are no limits to creativity when it comes to preventing drivers from parking illegally.
All you need to do is take a drive in some of these estates.
Flower pots
In Upper Thomson Road, the deterrent of choice appears to be the ubiquitous flower pot or water container.
Rubbish bins
If that doesn't help, tall rubbish bins, spread out over a 3m distance, may just do the trick, as other Upper Thomson Road residents have discovered.
Traffic cones
In other estates like some in Upper Bukit Timah, particularly the one opposite Beauty World, where popular food joints like Boon TongKee and Al-Ameen EatingHouse are located, some residents have resorted to using traffic cones.
Warning signs
And then there are signs on gates warning motorists not to obstruct residents' homes, also in the Upper Bukit Timah area.
These measures of "reserving" road spaces in private estates may appear inconsiderate to some.
But they're necessary, says one resident from Jalan Terubok in Upper Thomson Road.
"If it happens to you a few times a week, it can be tiring," says the resident in her 30s, who declined to give her name.
"I've been late for work on a few occasions while waiting to come out of my gate after finding a car parked too close to it.
"What if it had been an emergency?"
She adds that sometimes, it's her neighbours' fault for not parking their cars in their compounds.
But do such measures work?
Well, most of the time they do, says one resident of a private estate in Upper Bukit Timah, who gave her name only as Mrs Lee.
She says: "I caught one driver removing my pots. When I confronted him, he said it's a public road and that he wasn't doing any thing wrong."
Technically, the driver could be right if he's not blocking anyone.
According to a recent Straits Times report, Joo Chiat Member of Parliament Charles Chong said he was told by the Land Transport Authority that "as long as the owners of these vehicles have paid their road taxes and are not obstructing the road, there is no legislation that forbids this".
This article was first published in The New Paper.
Photos: The ABCs on illegal parking Click on thumbnail to view. Story continues after photos. (Photos: TNP, ST, Stomp) |
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