THE privatised Pay & Display parking system, replacing the old scratch-and-display coupons, has finally been implemented in Petaling Jaya since the beginning of this year despite many objections from motorists.

After its implementation, the outcry against the new system has not abated. From these objections, it is clear that the expensive new P&D system offers no clear advantages over the old system.

Moreover, there is one very obvious drawback and it is that the P&D meters cannot dispense parking tickets of less than 60 sen. It can be argued that it was not economically viable to print scratch-display coupons for less than 60 minutes of parking.

But surely this constraint does not apply to the P&D meters which can presumably be programmed to print parking tickets of any amount less than 60 minutes. If this is not done for short-term parking, the new P&D system is indeed no better than the system using the old type of parking meters, still in use in Kuala Lumpur and which even provides for a. 10 sen parking period.

Many motorists go to busy commercial areas for only a short duration, i.e. for banking transactions and the like, which only need 20 to 30 minutes of parking time. In fact, in many commercial areas in Petaling Jaya, short-term parking should be encouraged as this will increase turnover giving motorists more parking space and result in less traffic congestion and illegal parking in busy commercial areas.

Short-term parking should now be looked into and parking tickets of, say, 20 minutes be made available as soon as possible if the new P&D system is to go down well with the motorists.