Automotive

Math quiz: Parking coupons in Miri are supposed to cost RM4.25. They take RM5 and give you back RM0.70. What happened to the RM0.05?

The person in the parking booth claims they do not have 5 cents left (this early in the morning at 9am!)

So what do they do? Don't return the 5 cents, of course. Well of course to make excuses for laziness for not preparing enough 5 cent coins. We all know that if theyare to 'fix' this problem they will probably round the price up to RM4.30 or RM4.50, not issue more 5 cent coin changes.

The 'highway', a route connecting Bintulu & Miri in northern Sarawak, has always been known as a very accident-prone and a hotbed for crime and carjackings, now is also becoming a hotbed for express bus accidents.

Three serious express bus accidents occured in the past 5 months, claimed five lives, one including a six-month pregnant victim. In the latest accident, foreign tourists were also involved.

The list of express bus accidents :

- On March 4th, an express bus ferrying 19 people turned-turtle at the Pan Borneo Highway. It is fortunately that everyone, including some foreign tourists survived.

- On Jan 28, and express bus was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry,killing an Indian national and a pregnant woman.

- On Nov 21 last year, three people were killed and eight others injured when the express bus they were traveling in, collided head-on with a 38-tonne lorry.

It is not known what the causes were in these accidents. But the 'highway' is notorious for its deadly pot-holes, narrow roads and a lack of street lighting and effective reflectors for motoring individuals and other traffic, lack of maintenance and poor safety barriers.

Source

Parking along Bendahara road is being removed to make way for road widening. If you're turning into town from Melayu Road / Kingsway Road along China Street, there will be absolutely no parking for you, until you turn left along Cassia Road, turn into Anatto Street, make a turn into Raja Road adjacent to China Street, to find a parking space. Normally you'd find a spot along Bendahara, but this isn't possible now.

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Or you could park in the new parking area along the riverside just off Bendahara Road (as designated in these signs), which is quite a distance away.


As can also be seen in the pictures, the removal of the parking lines will only make people park in their own invisible parking spots. This road will be packed, parking or not. Is this a good idea?

Move to curb drink-driving in Sarawak

MIRI: Sarawak police will step up enforcement on the streets and highways throughout the state to deter alcohol abuse among motorists.

The police force in every town in the state’s 12 divisions and in the cities of Miri and Kuching will be equipped with breath-analysers and screening devices to detect motorists who are drunk or who have high level of blood alcohol.

“Reckless driving caused by drunkenness is very high. We must curb alcohol abuse.

More at Source

My take:

Come on! Why only now? We all know drinking & driving around these parts are insanely high, especially during festive seasons. I've noticed this since I started driving many years ago. And even then, news of accidents involving drunk drivers go way back to when I was a child. It's one reason I don't stay out late at nights on these occasions - we've seen too many incidents regarding drunk drivers killing innocent drivers, and they seemingly getting away with it.

The big question is, will you really take action or it's all just talk?

Bruneians Owe Miri Council RM16,000 In Parking Compound

Some 445 Brunei-registered vehicle owners have owed the Miri City Council RM16,000 in outstanding parking compound since 2002. This was highlighted by Miri's Mayor Lawrence Lai, the Borneo Post reported yesterday.

For the convenience of motorists from Brunei, the council has set up counters at its multi-storey car park during weekends and the public holidays. The counter will open from Sam to 4pm.

Errant motorists owe Miri City Council RM4.4 million in outstanding parking compound in that period of time. The outstanding amount involved 109,44 Malaysian registered vehicles and 698 from other foreign registered vehicles owe RM24,000 in outstanding compound.

Lai thus urged motorists to pay their outstanding compound to the council as parking fees and assessment rates were among the main contributors to the council's revenue. "The council is giving a three-month grace starting May I with a 50 per cent discount to encourage defaulters to pay up," he said.

However, the response has been poor with only RM129,000 in outstanding compound collected in May, he stated, adding that as a last resort the council might take legal action against the defaulters after the expiry of this grace period.

A penalty of RM300 would be imposed on motorists after their cases are brought to court, he stated.

Full news here

My take:

I'm not at all surprised. The coupon-ticketing system has too much discrepancies. If you park properly and mis-scratch the date or time or just made some sort of honest mistake, you get a fine, you have to pay the full fine of RM15! Add to the cost of the coupon with the mistake that would be about RM15.40. If a person did NOT put a coupon, he pays a fine with gross amount of about RM15.

That's 0.40 cents LESS than the person that made an honest mistake!!!!

Sure, you can go to have this disputed, but you'd have to head over to the Council building for this, and when you're there, you have to pay for another parking there! And assuming you DON'T make a mistake there, you have to dispute with the complaints counter, which if they say they can't do anything about it, then you'd have to take it to whoever is in charge of that. Assuming they waive the fine, there's all this cost incurred to your time. It's THAT frustrating. So if you're from across the border it's understandable why you'd just resort to hopping across the border back home instead of having to deal with all these stupid little time-consuming things like us poor locals have to.

However, those who park in yellow lines, or park their cars like an idiot (parking in 2 spots, or even 3, double parking, or improperly - see picture ) will get away with it.

So - tough luck. Perhaps the council should think about some more effective way of promoting things like this.