Since Dec. 1, 2016, parking rates have gone up 20 percent at public car parks across the island.

To meet this new pricing, new parking coupons (in denominations such as $0.60 and $1.20) have been introduced.

[quip float="pqright"]Ongoing obituary: Free parking on Sundays & after 5pm dying a slow & steady death[/quip]

Motorists were asked to exchange old coupons with new ones at participating petrol stations. Those who are caught using outdated coupons were given a one-off reminder to switch to the new ones.

Unfortunately, long queues have started to form at petrol stations. The exchanging of coupons is a labour-intensive, and low-to-nil profit-generating activity involving counting coupons, verifying the numbers, double-checking the coupons, etc.

Not to mention there are kiasu Singaporeans who buy up big bundles of the coupons causing petrol stations to sell out quickly.

Enter Joe Chua Cheok Kwang, a Straits Times forum letter writer policy-makers sorely need.

Joe offered a solution that would eliminate the logistical nightmare faced by petrol stations, save motorists the time/ frustration in hunting down new coupons, and also make sure the old coupons would not go wasted.

He suggested that we could simply pro-rate the old coupons -- i.e. $0.50 coupons would allow you to park for 25 minutes instead of 30 minutes.

Beautifully simple and effective.

Here's his full letter published in ST on Dec. 12:

One simple and effective way to resolve the problem of the inadequate supply of parking coupons and to do away with the hassle of exchanging the old parking coupons for the new ones would be to allow the use of the old 50-cent, $1 and $2 coupons, but at the new rates ("New parking coupon respite - but just once"; Dec 8).

Rather than parking for half an hour at the new rate of 60 cents, a driver could use the old 50-cent coupon and park for only 25 minutes.

For $1 coupons, which were previously valid for one hour, they would now be valid for 50 minutes, and so on.

This method should have been implemented in the first place.

The old parking coupons would then still be valid and drivers can use them legally.

No laws are being circumvented and concerns about the hoarding of the old coupons to effect a 20 per cent savings would be addressed as well.

It is still not too late for the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the Housing Board to adopt this solution.

Joe Chua Cheok Kwang

Joe is the hero we all need.

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