Cars at Kampung Ayer

I really pitied the guy who accidentally reversed his car into the river from the parking lot in front of the Bubungan Dua Belas at Jalan Residency. Luckily he managed to escape from the car and was able to swim to safety. It still took the fire and rescue people a few minutes to find the car even though they had complete diving gear. Imagine if he had been in it, those few minutes would be the difference between life and death.

All of us who have driven through those areas must have noticed the number of cars parked alongside the riverbank belonging to the Kampung Ayer residents. It's a difficult situation for them given the parking areas that are available are never sufficient for the many cars that they owned. I know the Kampung Ayer residents parked wherever they can find parking spots throughout Bandar. I remembered when I was attached at the Marine Department which was based in the old Customs Department building some 16 years ago, how long we had to wait for the residents whose cars were parked at the department's carpark to move their cars out in the morning and then how difficult it was for us when we wanted to leave in the evening as they would already be crowding around there waiting for cars to go out.

Given that the residents parked their cars along the river, I am still amazed that the authorities have never built any barrier or any form of rails along the riverbank, if not to prevent the cars from going over, but at least give the drivers some form of indication of how near they are to the river edge. Last night during the BICTA awards, I asked my colleague who used to be the head honcho of public works why is it that the government never put up those barriers. He said the answer was somewhere along the line that a request was never put up and that nothing ever happened all this while. Besides there was this massive river front project which was supposed to widen the roads along Sungai Lampai which would include parkings and everything. Everyone assumed the project will take place soon and that there is no point in putting up temporary structures such as crash barriers etc. Still, it would have been worthwhile to put up as the river front project is still up for award. Sometimes I worry that something serious has to happen before we move to do something about it.

In the meantime, what else can be done? I understand that there are already several parking lots which can be used by the residents. Some required to be paid a minimal sum of about $1 per evening which included the Yayasan parking and the parking in front of the cemetery. These are not taken up by the residents, paying $1 a night can be quite expensive in the long run when there is free parking to be had. The Yayasan was only able to attract people who happen to live near the Yayasan building, so it is not taken up much by the Kampung Ayer residents. Another solution would be the 'park and ride' concept which is used extensively in Europe. Build a big parking lot somewhere further where there is space and then use a bus service to regularly ply between the parking area and the riverbank. That stil sounds expensive. A crash barrier along the riverbank would be cheaper. It would be cheaper still if accidental drowning deaths can be prevented.