Roadside parking initiative fails as people don't follow instructions

Mr Low usually leaves his car parked on the left side of the road outside his semi-detached house near Bukit Panjang.

But every Tuesday, the 50-year-old businessman shifts his car to the opposite side so a road-sweeping vehicle can clean the left side of the roughly 100m-long street.

Then on Thursday, residents are supposed to park on the left so the road sweeper can return to clean the right side of the road. At least, that is how the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) Alternate Roadside Parking programme is supposed to work on cleaning days in the 33 areas where it has been rolled out.

The problem here and elsewhere is that only a few residents, such as Mr Low, comply with NEA’s instructions on which side of the road to park.

These residents told The Straits Times the well-meaning initiative could be much more effective if more people complied with NEA’s instructions.

NEA launched this programme, which requires private landed estate residents to park on alternate sides on cleaning days, in 2019 and will expand it to 12 more areas in 2025, ST reported on Jan 5.

The agency said the programme has cut cleaning times by 50 to 80 per cent, as all roads in private landed estates used to be swept manually by cleaners.

But some residents said patchy compliance has meant that leaves and debris are left on the uncleaned side of the road. And workers are deployed to blow and sweep leaves from under cars, and into the path of the mechanised road sweeper.

ST spoke to residents living in 12 locations under the programme, many of whom said most of their neighbours do not follow NEA’s advice on where to park because they find it hard to remember, troublesome or confusing.

Others said they were not aware of the programme.

Mr Low, who wanted to be known only by his surname, said nearly all residents in his street still park on the left side of the road on Tuesdays, when they are supposed to park on the right.

“The irony is... I sometimes end up blocking the road even though I bothered to move to the correct side,” said Mr Low, whose family has two other cars that they park in their driveway.

“At times, I’ve had to move my car back to the left side of the road so that the sweeper truck can pass. It defeats the point of the initiative if not all residents are following it.”

Special needs teacher Adrienne Lim, 57, said most of her neighbours along her street in the Cashew estate near Bukit Panjang still leave their vehicles on the left side of the road on Thursdays, when they are meant to park on the right.

This happens even though signs have been put up along the road to indicate which side of the road they should park their cars on between 9.30am and 11.30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Ms Lim, who parks her car in her driveway, added: “Because people aren’t parking on the correct side, the road-sweeping truck cannot clean the road thoroughly, and there are often still leaves and debris on one side.”

 

Thomson Ridge estate resident Mei Wong, whose family also parks their car in their driveway, said nearly all those who park along the road outside her house do not follow the advisory.

“Most people don’t shift their cars since no one checks, but a few residents do, so the cleaning vehicle has to weave in and out of the cars, which is more time-consuming for the cleaners,” said the retiree, who is in her 70s.

Among the 12 locations ST visited, only the Mei Hwan estate and Li Hwan Drive had a majority of residents who adhered to instructions on which side of the road to park, according to accounts from people who live there.

A 75-year-old retiree who wanted to be known only as Mr Chao said that he shifts his second car – which he parks outside his house in the Mei Hwan estate – to the correct side of the road on cleaning days.

He does this so that the road-sweeping vehicle can ply both sides of his street, which has become cleaner since his neighbours did likewise.

Mr Alex Lee, a manager at NEA’s division of public cleanliness, had earlier told ST that cleaners use leaf blowers to blow leaves and litter from underneath vehicles that are not parked on the correct side of the road.

He said NEA works with neighbourhood committees to encourage residents to support the programme by distributing pamphlets and conducting door-to-door visits.

 

NEA had said it has not introduced enforcement actions to penalise residents who do not comply because it hopes to engage them through a more collaborative approach.

But experts said it would be difficult to ensure residents follow guidelines unless there were consequences for non-compliance.

Associate Professor Walter Theseira, a transport economist at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, pointed to street cleaning programmes in cities like New York that strictly prohibit vehicle owners from parking in specific areas during cleaning times. Fines are issued to those who flout the rules.

“It takes more resources to clean the roads because some residents are not cooperating. Fines or cleaning fees may be necessary to get them to comply, especially when it takes just one resident to go against the guidelines for the programme to not work as intended,” said Prof Theseira.