AAP calls for more parking buildings

TO CLEAR the alternative routes of illegally parked vehicles and other obstacles, the Automobile Association of the Philippines (AAP) reiterated its call for the construction of parking buildings in strategic places around Metro Manila.

AAP president Gus Lagman made the call in conjunction with the traffic decongestion efforts being undertaken on Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (Edsa) by the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG).

Both the HPG and Metro Manila Development Authority have urged motorists to use alternative routes to avoid traffic jams on Edsa. However, the alternative roads are often blocked by illegally parked vehicles and sidewalk vendors.

“The government and the private sector can invest in constructing parking buildings. The government has the land, the private sector can build on it. Aside from clearing the road of blockages, it can be a money-making venture,” Lagman said. “Constructing safe and secure parking buildings does not need much capital. Operating them would be profitable due to the acute shortage of safe parking facilities in Metro Manila.

“A parking building would need a very simple engineering plan. No windows and walls are needed, just a simple cement flooring and a sturdy roof. A few inexpensive toilets are a plus, a few security personnel to man the area and it is bound to make money,” he claimed.

“A six-storey parking building with a 1,000 square meter footprint can be constructed and finished in less than a year,” he added.

The national auto club president said that the idea was first discussed when the MMDA sought AAP’s assistance to solve the traffic gridlock in the vicinity of La Salle Greenhills and Poveda.

“After considering numerous options, we came up with the idea of a parking building to be constructed beside or near the gates of the schools,” he said.

Lagman pointed out that motorists who park their vehicles on the street outside a secured parking facility run a greater risk of getting carjacked, bumped, sideswiped or their vehicles being broken into by criminals.

A parking building, on the other hand, not only provides a safe place for your car, it also benefits the general public by helping to reduce the number of obstacles on the road, Lagman concluded.