Malaysians working in Singapore add to JB’s parking woes, but little relief is at hand
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A parking attendant inspecting cars in Johor Bahru's city centre on June 12.
ST PHOTO: HARITH MUSTAFFA
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JOHOR BAHRU – The sky is still dark when sisters Wong Oi Fah, 79, and Wong Oi Ling, 68, arrive at 4.30am, ready to begin brewing concoctions at their Chinese herbal drinks shop, which opens from 9am to midnight in downtown Johor Bahru.
Despite the early hour, it is “very hard to find parking” for their compact Perodua Myvi near the Jalan Pasar shop lot.
The aggravating parking situation in the state capital’s city centre has become worse of late, exacerbated by Malaysians working in Singapore who hog public parking bays in the area before heading across the Causeway by bus.
As it is, residents, business owners and visitors in the area have to compete for limited parking spaces. The problem is compounded by the daily stream of workers heading to the Republic, who leave their parked vehicles from day through night in the southern state’s various towns.
“It’s been like this for many years,” said the younger Madam Wong at their century-old Kok Yow Yong Drinks Shop when The Straits Times visited recently, noting that many of the public parking spaces are taken up by the time she gets to the shop.
“I pity the businesses here... the lots are always full,” she said, adding that businesses like hers – alongside kopi tiams, beauty salons, old-style jewellery stores and sundry shops – have been struggling to attract customers who cannot find a spot to park in the bustling downtown area. And those who chance it by parking on the roadside have had summonses issued and their cars towed away by Johor Bahru City Council enforcement officers, who regularly conduct checks.
But little relief is at hand for the time being, as the local authorities continue mulling over solutions to the endemic parking woes, involving time limits for public parking bays and providing more parking spaces downtown.
State housing and local government committee chairman Mohd Jafni Md Shukor told ST that there are plans to increase parking spaces in affected areas, implement time limits for public parking bays, and work with bus operators to find more suitable locations for passenger pickups to reduce congestion build-up.
Bus drivers are often blamed for clogging roads and exacerbating parking issues. “We are told to wait only 10 to 15 minutes at pick-up points (so as to not block public roads),” said Mr Rajkumar, 50, a workers’ bus driver.
Mr Kumares Varan, 29, from Kulai, who parks his car and takes a chartered bus from Skudai town on weekdays to a factory in Singapore, said: “There is no public transport to get here (to Skudai) and Grab isn’t cheap.”
“A task force has been set up to study the issue involving the two city councils (in state capital Johor Bahru and state administrative capital Iskandar Puteri)... but we need to study this carefully,” Datuk Jafni said, noting the rise in complaints from residents and business owners over the matter.
“We are closely monitoring this issue that has been raised by fellow state assemblypersons and the local business community... where motorists hog parking bays all day till late at night, causing disruption to local businesses here as customers cannot find a lot to park their vehicles,” he added.
Over 350,000 travellers cross the Johor-Singapore border daily, making it one of the busiest land border crossings in the world. Workers would park their cars in transit spots at certain towns in Johor Bahru or in the city centre before hopping on a bus to Singapore, returning only in the late evening.
Skudai, which is about 13km from Johor Bahru, is one such transit spot, along with Nusa Perintis – a suburb in Gelang Patah close to Singapore’s Tuas land checkpoint – and downtown Johor Bahru near the Sultan Abu Bakar Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Security Complex.
Surveys by ST at some of these hot spots saw the carparks fully occupied for much of the day through early evening as workers on different shifts took turns snapping up the spaces.
“I see customers driving round and round to find a parking space before going away,” said a woeful Mr Thinesh Naidu, who co-owns a tea shop in Jalan Trus in the city centre
Even the privately managed carparks are full. According to an attendant in charge of the parking area opposite Galleria Kotaraya mall in downtown Johor Bahru, around 80 per cent of its 200 lots are occupied by Malaysians who work in Singapore, who pay RM15 for all-day parking.
Malaysians who work in Singapore pay RM15 (S$4.55) for all-day parking at a privately managed carpark near Galleria Kotaraya in downtown Johor Bahru.
ST PHOTO: HARITH MUSTAFFA
And while some businesses are willing to pay RM150 (S$45) a month to the city council for a reserved space for their customers, some drivers continue to park in these spots illegally and risk their cars being towed away.
A 70-year-old car mechanic, known only as Mr Hock, has resorted to parking his two cars in front of his auto workshop early in the morning, in order to “reserve” space to work on his customers’ cars. He moves his cars elsewhere to free up the spaces when customers come in to have their vehicles serviced or repaired.
“If I don’t do this, I won’t even have space to do my work (out front),” he said.
Mr Hock has resorted to parking his two cars in front of his auto workshop early in the morning, in order to ‘reserve’ space to work on his customers’ cars.
ST PHOTO: HARITH MUSTAFFA
The southern state’s public transport primarily consists of buses, supplemented by taxis and ride-hailing services. The local and intercity bus services connect some parts of Johor Bahru city and the outlying towns.
Malaysia’s car ownership level ranks among the highest in Asia. In 2023, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the country had 36.3 million registered vehicles, surpassing its population of 32.4 million people.
Statistics from the International Organisation of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers in 2024 showed Malaysia had 535 cars per 1,000 people from 2015 to 2020, ranking it second in Asia behind Japan.
For most drivers, paying for parking is not an issue. Public parking in the city costs from 40 sen for 30 minutes, with full-day passes at RM6, while private bays can go up to RM20 per day – which isn’t a lot for those earning in Singapore dollars.
“We aren’t in the wrong because we pay for parking,” said Mr Aswad Ahmad Anwar, 35, a Skudai resident working as a production assistant in a factory in Woodlands, who earns the Singapore-dollar equivalent of RM7,000 a month.
Experts attribute the traffic congestion and parking issues to poor urban planning, over-reliance on private vehicles, low parking fees, and a lack of efficient last-mile connectivity between residential areas and cross-border bus transit points.
The prevailing reliance on cars and affordable parking make this a difficult issue with no easy or quick solutions, they say.
A workers’ bus used to ferry passengers from Johor Bahru to Singapore waiting for passengers in Skudai on June 11.
ST PHOTO: HARITH MUSTAFFA
Mr Wan Agyl Wan Hassan, founder of My Mobility Vision, a transport think-tank focused on developing sustainable and inclusive mobility solutions for Malaysia, said: “RM6 per day for city-centre kerbside space is too low.”
Associate Professor Walter Theseira, a transport economist from the Singapore University of Social Sciences, favours time-limited “red” spaces for parking spaces to reduce day-long hogging and better public transit infrastructure for commuters to get around without relying heavily on their cars.
“Many housing areas in JB don’t have good public transit access and when new developments are built, often the expectation is most residents will drive or use private transport,” he told ST.
More parking facilities are in the pipeline, such as a mixed-use development that will be completed in 2033.
Malaysia’s southern state is poised to be the country’s economic engine with the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone
In December 2024, Johor’s Menteri Besar announced a joint committee between the state government and Transport Ministry to tackle dozens of congestion hot spots in JB, reported local media outlet Bernama.
A light rail transit system – or what Malaysia calls the Elevated Automated Rapid Transit or E-ART system – is also being considered
For now, Johoreans are resigned to the situation but hope things will improve. As Johor Bahru Business and Hawker Association president Roland Lim told ST: “This issue has persisted for years and we are numb to it.”
Harith Mustaffa is a journalist covering Malaysia for The Straits Times, with a focus on Johor.
