JOHOR BAHRU – They rise at the crack of dawn to get to work in Singapore, and when evening comes, they have to face another hurdle. Malaysian motorcyclists have to deal with the delicate task of navigating their machines out of a makeshift and crammed parking lot here.
“I spend about 10 minutes slowly taking my bike out. Then it is another struggle to ride it out of the narrow lot lanes,” said Ms Effa Suraya A. Hamid, 42.
She said it was a challenge to not only wiggle her motorbike out of the tight space, but she also had to make sure she would not tip it over causing the other motorbikes to fall like dominoes.
The Johor state government designated the space adjacent to the main entrance of Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex (BSI CIQ) as a makeshift lot for daily commuters to park their motorcycles for free.
It is about the size of three badminton courts, but a minimum of 1,000 motorcycles are parked there, merely inches apart from one another.
Ms Effa, who works as a kitchen helper in Singapore, said she usually parked her motorcycle in front of the BSI CIQ at 4 am prior to hopping on the bus to cross the Causeway.
The parking lot is normally not as packed in the early hours of the day. By evening, however, her motorcycle is sandwiched among other bikes, she said in an interview.
In spite of the daily hassle, Ms Effa, a single mother of nine children, said she is willing to put up with it so that she can earn enough money to feed her big family.
“I started working in Singapore last year because I was simply not earning enough to take care of my kids.
She said, “Five of them were still in school,” and added that her eldest daughter, who is 23, takes care of the children while she is at work.
She said that she was thankful that Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi, who has been vocal about issues concerning the CIQ, permitted motorcyclists to park at the makeshift lot, as it has helped her to save some money each month.
The Larkin resident said, “I previously parked at a paid parking lot nearby, which costs me RM3 (S$0.87) per day. Every ringgit counts, in this economy, “especially when I have so many children depending on me,”
Don Lee, 36, daily commuter said he once spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to free his motorcycle as other motorbikes had parked around him.
He had to move other bikes little by little to get his motorcycle out, and then move the other machines back. The factory worker who usually takes a photo of his parking spot in case he forgets where he parked said while doing so, his back licence plate hit another bike’s exhaust pipe and snapped in half.
Mr Mohd Azrol Akmal, 40, another factory employee, said last week that he noticed some scratches on his parked motorcycle upon returning from across the border.
He said he believes it was because the vehicles were parked too close to one another, so getting scratches is unavoidable.
He added that his friend, who parks in the same lot prior to taking the bus across the border, returned one day to find that one of the signal lights on his motorcycle was broken.
The father of three, said that he is however, grateful for the free parking at a site that is so near the BSI CIQ entrance. There are risks, though, and the price to pay is the damage to their vehicles, he said.
Mr Mohd Azrol stated that he is not worried about motorcycle theft as there are policemen manning the BSI CIQ entrance nearby.
Checks with one of the police officials on duty discovered that the makeshift parking lot was opened after one of Datuk Onn Hafiz’s many visits to the complex in May to address Causeway congestion and parking issues.
Johor Bahru South district police chief Raub Selamat said when contacted, that there were fewer than five reports of motorcycle theft in the area so far in 2023.
