Six Awful Parking Habits of Malaysians

We know that road regulations in Malaysia are more a suggestion than the law. But it is our parking habits that really take the cake. Oftentimes, our errant parking ways cause great inconvenience and traffic jams, but no amount of honking of the horn, cursing and parking fines have made Malaysians realise the error of their ways. Here are six of our weird and worst parking habits that need to stop right now:-

When Making it a Double is Not A Good Thing

Blame it on insufficient or inconveniently located parking spaces, but double parking is the bane of a driver’s existence, specifically when you are the one being blocked in. The more considerate driver who double parks would display his/her phone number on the dashboard, so s/he could be summoned to move the car; the ones not so stand to have his/her car keyed or tyres slashed, and we cannot say that we feel sorry when that happens.

Crappy Kerb Parking

For some reason, we think that even Kancil's and Kelisa's are 4WD’s and capable of ramming up onto kerbs where there are no ramps, and leave them parked there while we happily trot around the shops and have lunch. Oftentimes, these kerbs double as pedestrian walkways, and these errant parked vehicles force pedestrians onto the road…which is why Malaysians do not like to walk to their destinations, preferring to drive instead, which means they need to find a place to park, which leads to them parking on any empty space they see, including on kerbs…it’s a vicious cycle.

When Misers go to Malls 

It’s not uncommon to see parked cars lining the roads outside shopping malls. These are the misers who refuse to pay the parking fee but risk a parking fine or their cars being towed – a case of being penny wise pound foolish. It’s also not uncommon to see luxury cars amongst them, which makes us wonder how is it that they are willing to pay thousands for the car but not pittance for parking.

Twenty-Something-Point Turn Reverse Parking

Visitors to our country have noticed our proclivity for reversing into parking spots. While there is nothing wrong with enjoying rear entries, there are many who are unable to execute it at first or even second try, thus holding up traffic as they carry out a twenty-something-point turn. You would think that with all the rear cameras, parking assistance technology and warning signals integrated into cars nowadays, Malaysians would get better at it. But no. We can suggest no remedy for this except practice and confidence, and perhaps a smaller car.

When Idiots think they are Special

Parking lots in Malaysia have been improved upon in recent years. There’s better lighting, emergency help buttons and designated spots for OKU’s (disabled parking), single female drivers, families and even green vehicles. But many a times, we see cars that do not have the OKU sticker in the OKU spots...

...and female drivers who drop their companions off at the entrance before claiming the usually pink-painted spot (okay, so they found a loophole, but still blardy inconsiderate), and even this literal interpretation of green vehicles:

 Okay, the last one is so funny that we can forgive the driver.

Grandfather's Road Mentality

Have you ever crawled in traffic and stopped behind a stationary car, and waited for a few minutes before realising that the car was actually parked IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. Wow. The road must be his/her grandfather’s. Or perhaps that driver had just given up on life and abandoned the car. We hope that it was the latter, because nothing else can excuse the audacity of claiming a parking spot where there is none, and obstructing traffic in doing so.

These are the awful parking habits that irk us to no end. What other unforgivable parking habits have we missed out? Air your grievances here...

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