More CCTV cameras to deter illegal parking

More CCTV cameras to deter illegal parking

Peak hour in Grange Road is a nightmare for drivers using it to access Orchard Road malls.

Administrative executive Karen Bek, 47, said it takes her 15 to 20 minutes to pass the 700m stretch from Grange Road to Ngee Ann City, via Orchard Turn.

Another motorist, Mr Richie Lee, 41, who is unemployed, said the jams in Grange Road can sometimes be exacerbated by vehicles stopping illegally for passengers along the double yellow zig-zag lines between Mandarin Gallery and Cathay Cineleisure. He said that once drivers get past the stretch of road where the taxis stop, "there is not much congestion".

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is stepping up measures to improve traffic conditions by reducing illegal parking or stopping islandwide.

Grange Road is one of 40 roads where closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras will be installed in the first quarter of next year. Drivers who are caught on camera parking or stopping illegally will be fined.

The new cameras will be set up in illegal parking hot spots such as Joo Chiat Road fronting 112 Katong mall and Tampines Avenue 4 where Tampines Mall is.

They will add to an existing 30 installed earlier this year.

Another frequently congested road is the access road to OUE Bayfront in Collyer Quay. Security officers working at OUE Bayfront say the area gets congested with delivery vehicles or couriers who have only the one narrow road that leads to a wider unloading bay to deliver supplies to at least three different buildings.

Delivery driver Prakash Stantiramorthan, 33, said: "When the unloading bay is closed after hours, we have no choice but to park here to deliver supplies."

But lines should first be drawn along the side of the road to signal a clear no-waiting zone before cameras are installed, said 33-year-old accounts executive Angus Ang, who was waiting in a car to pick his wife up.

"Since there are no lines, it is okay to wait here now," he said.

Taxi driver Thomas Lau, 45, said the presence of CCTV cameras has been very effective in deterring cabbies like himself from stopping illegally for passengers, but he wished the LTA could be more flexible.

"Wherever customers want to wait, we have to stop for them," he said in Mandarin.

"They are not going to walk to where there is no CCTV. We have to make a living too."

Cameras at 40 new locations

To deter illegal parking, closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras will be operational at 40 new locations from the first quarter of next year.

Here are some areas where the CCTV cameras will be installed:

- Collyer Quay, access road next to OUE Bayfront

- Grange Road, between Mandarin Gallery and Cineleisure

- Joo Chiat Road, in front of 112 Katong mall

- Marina Coastal Drive, in front of Marina South Pier

- Outram Road, in front of Tan Boon Liat Building

- Rochor Road, in front of Fu Lu Shou Complex

- Selegie Road, between POMO and Parklane Shopping Mall

- Seletar Road, in front of Greenwich shopping centre

- Serangoon Road, in front of The Verge shopping mall

- Toh Tuck Road, in front of SingPost

- Upper Serangoon Road, in front of eateries near Sunshine Terrace

oliviaho@sph.com.sg
lesterh@sph.com.sg


This article was first published on December 23, 2014.
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