The prospect of pay parking on Bacolod City streets has been a harrowing one for the people who have been parking on public property for ages, for free. However, the good news for those people is that so far, it seems that the implementation has been either delayed or forgotten, which is a common ailment among local government units.
It usually happens when the ordinance or measure is controversial, and the political blowback is potentially severe, especially if the election season is nigh. From the looks of it, the implementation of pay parking will probably be delayed until after the elections next year, so those who have been preparing to protest it can breathe a sigh of relief.
In my previous article, I already expressed my stand on pay street parking, where I said that while free parking is a blessing, the era of pay parking will hopefully do more good than harm, especially if it is going to lay the groundwork for a better urban system where the focus is on people and not vehicles. I am willing to give it a chance because of its potential to be part of a comprehensive master plan where we get proper sidewalks, bike lanes, regulated parking, and a decent and efficient public transportation system. I’m not very optimistic, but at least it’s a start.
If pay parking is going to be a thing in Bacolod, the ideal way to implement it would be to start with a blanket ban on street parking, which will then make people thankful that they can pay to park. If you come to think of it, this already started a few months back with the tire clamp and towing campaign, which was unfortunately implemented inconsistently and without any clear guidelines on which areas were affected by the parking rules. Fast forward to today, nobody still really knows where it is definitely ok and not ok to park.
According to the SP ordinance that establishes pay parking in the city, there is supposed to be a list of affected areas. However, since that wasn’t published or made public, nobody still knows where those places are. And so far, I don’t think I have seen a lot of no parking or pay parking signs, which makes me think that the city isn’t really interested in institutionalizing pay parking. It would seem that the current strategy is to just scare motorists with inconsistency, or create among them the constant fear that the pay parking / tire clamping / towing monster will just suddenly pop out from nowhere and do its thing.
If a blanket street parking ban is not feasible, then the parking effort, when it does get moving, might want to focus on the areas where illegal parking is rampant. They might’ve basically cleared the city’s major roads, but it is in the interior barangay roads where parking has been a problem for some time now. This is most seen among those who can afford to buy a car, but don’t have garages, so they occupy parts of the already narrow street and even sidewalks, all for their precious cars. If no parking is not possible for these people, then pay parking should be the bare minimum, which aside from enforcing discipline, also provides the barangay with extra income.
The same goes for commercial establishments that have occupied public streets, curbs, and sidewalks to get free parking for themselves and their customers, care of the city that built that infrastructure for an entirely different purpose. If they are going to occupy public property for the purpose of business, the city might as well charge them a daily or monthly rate for it, and then provide them with a piece of paper that they can show to the rest of the world, proving that they temporarily “own” those parking slots. I’d love to have those people shut me up with a receipt when I ask them for a “titulo” when they claim to own public property just because their business establishment doesn’t have its own privately owned parking space.
The way things are going right now, it doesn’t look like street pay parking is imminent in Bacolod City. There is apparently an ordinance, but the affected areas haven’t been announced, there are no signs being put up, with no parking rates declared. We should just enjoy (or abuse) the status quo while we can, but at the same time also prepare for life when parking is no longer the free-for-all affair that most of us grew up with. That means learning the rules, rates, and penalties, as well as coming up with alternative plans, or admitting to ourselves that walking a little bit further and/or taking public transport should be a viable option.*
