MyIndo.com: Bricks for Brakes - A Personal Peek at Jakarta's Unique Parking System

Feverishly going through a round of Chinese checkers at Plaza Senayan's Kaferoti (Jakarta) with Dira, Riga and Evi before heading out to watch 'Ada Apa Dengan Cinta' (15/2/2002). Kaferoti's got this banana chocolate milk drink that I am absolutely potty about!

Bricks for Brakes

by Farah 'Fairy' Mahdzan

(30-May-2004) | Readers Say

"Parking spaces are too wide in KL," Vit once told me as I parked my car in Kuala Lumpur City Center's underground parking area that one sunny day in March last year.

"Really?" I said, stunned at her comment.

"Yes, in Jakarta our parking spaces in malls are more compact and better-managed to make room for loads of cars. Indonesia kan banyak orangnya," boasted my Jakartan friend. She got out of the car and proceeded to show me how much wider the parking space was in KLCC by doing a split right between my car and the neighboring one.

"Yes I suppose parking spaces here are a bit wider than in Jakarta," I said, pressing down the car lock button on my remote control while marvelling her split skills.

"Malaysians lack patience on the road too! Malaysians lack challenge on the roads. Just wait till they go driving in Jakarta, then they'll know what traffic hell is!" Vit added smugly. I chuckled, secretly agreeing with her.

I need not be told what experts Indonesians are when it comes to driving. Since time immemorial I've been indoctrinated with the idea that Indonesians are skillful in a lot of things, and one of them includes driving and parking their cars. Seeing this firsthand is proof enough for me that this claim is true.

And honestly, with city traffic ranked as one of the most severe in Asia, it'd be an insult to assume that no Jakartan would quickly adopt the mastery of slithering in and out of the most havoc and mind-boggling of traffic situations created by the thousands of vehicles on the road.

Jakartan drivers' patience is also tested daily by the chaos of erratic bajaj drivers, beggers and road sellers loitering around dangerously around traffic light areas. And let's not forget the inconsiderate Metro Mini bus drivers who stop wherever they please to pick up passengers!

Limited and narrow parking spaces also contribute to sharpening Indonesian driving skills.

Unlike most modern cities, you won't find parking meters of any kind on the sidewalks of Jakarta; instead tukang parkirs, or self-assigned parking attendants, reign the parking lots in the city. Tukang parkirs pace outdoor parking areas and patiently wait for drivers to drive up. When a potential customer drives up to park, they'd blow a whistle and start waving you arm signals while shouting things like "Terus! Terus!", hoping you'd get the message and turn the steering wheel according to the (sometimes) ambiguous directions that they give out.

Sometimes it's hard not to get slightly annoyed with the parking attendant guy flapping his arms around like an exasperated mother hen, making it hard for difficult for the driver to see properly in the rear view mirror while reversing into a designated parking lot. "Bukannya membantu, malah menggangu, (not helpful at all!)" my friend Fibi once muttered under breath as she tries to adjust her maroon Toyota Starlet into position. I snickered in my passenger's seat in utter amusement.

After an hour or two, we'd enter the car again to leave the parking vicinity, only to find that the tukang parkir will be at it again with his whistle and his "Terus terus!" yells and arm gestures. Fibi would roll down her window just before we speed off and hand the tukang parkir some compensation, at least Rp.1,000 for his kind deed in watching over our car while we went shopping.

Once we wanted to park near QB Bookstore in the middle of the city, and since there was no parking space left, our tukang parkir instructed us to park in front of another car, thus blocking it. Double parking makes me nervous since the other car owner could come back before I'm done with my shopping and maybe scratch my car with a mighty vengeance with his key for blocking his 4-wheeler. Or worse, crash boom bang!

Bricks for Brakes! Then this is where it got interesting. The tukang parkir politely asked Fibi to leave her hand brake down and said he'll "take care" of it. I then saw the man wedge in a brick behind our car's back tyre.

By leaving our parked car at neutral gear and using a piece of brick to stop the car from rolling off course, the tukang parkir was able manually push our car should the other car we were blocking wanted to leave.

I remember thinking at this point, "Indonesians sure are strong people!"

But of course he had other tukang parkir friends with him to help him push cars in and out of position, should the need arise.

This sort of parking exercise is commonly practiced in Indonesian parking areas especially when traffic gets particularly busy. The practice is not even limited to sidewalk parking; I've seen uniformed parking attendants push a van once in a posh shopping mall parking area to make space for another incoming car.

Malaysians aren't exactly accustomed to the presence of random parking attendants as Indonesians are. Given that we'd only be irritated by the presence of services we deem unnecessary, how could we ever possibly leave our cars on neutral while we let complete strangers lodge our tyres with nothing more than bricks to halt them?

Let's leave the "park-push-put-brick" parking business to the Indonesians; like their driving, they're so much better at it.

WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT Bricks for Brakes:

#24. Hi indoguy, thanks for sharing your story about parking in Paris. In Malaysia I only see that being practiced at the LRT stations parking in Klang Valley area, and I believe there is a tukang parking who'd help move the cars if necessary.
Posted by Fairy - Website on 16-Apr-2010, 18:15 MYT

#23. It's not a big deal. Putting down the hand break while parking is a common practice in big western European cities like Paris where there are not many parking spaces available. It's even worse, because in Paris there's no tukang parkir to watch your car. Somebody just can do damage to your car and leave it irresponsibly. AND parking spaces on the road side in Paris way smaller than the ones in Jakarta. So if you ask me who're better in parking their cars, as a Jakartan who live in Paris, I would say: Parisian.
Posted by indoguy on 16-Apr-2010, 12:28 MYT

#22. PARDUGEM: I try.
Posted by Fairy on 27-Apr-2007, 01:43 MYT

#21. thanx fairy! you seem to always have positive look on Indonesia, even when it comes to so-so (so peculiar? so disorder? )
Posted by pardugem pardulalip - Website on 25-Apr-2007, 20:47 MYT

#20. It's been a while since I visited.. How 're you doin, Fairy..

Nice article. Made miss the hectic Jakartaaaa......
Posted by JaF - Website on 4-Oct-2006, 20:56 MYT

#19. DONNY: Waduh, membingungkan! Can't these tukang parkirs make up their minds?? Ayo, handbrakenya mau ditarik or dineutral nihh hehe.
Posted by Fairy on 26-Jul-2006, 11:52 MYT

#18. Yup Fairy, could be because I pulled the handbrake so 'O' warning being used hehe..
so to test, you could try to pull your handbrake when double parked in the future, then see what you got.

Oh I forgot one thing, one time I parked that friend's car again, but it wasn't double-parking, I leave the hand-brake and gear neutral (learnt from 'O' experince), but this guy somehow grabbed his finger and put his fist in the air, I stunned again.

My friend spent one his best day ever, laughing for 2nd time of me, all I knew after that was the fist meant 'pull your hand-brake'

hehehe I love Jakarta.

Posted by Donny Wahyudi - Website on 21-Jul-2006, 12:21 MYT

#17. ROEDI:

Wow, you're good. Yes betul photo traffic itu diambil di atas jambatan overlooking Jatinegara. I was just there iseng2, liat pasarnya, banyak tempat jual 2nd hand kaset/cd.

DONNY:

That's a very interesting observation! I've never seen it being used while in Jakarta but then again I'm usually with friends who already know what to do when having to double park. The 'O' signal. O for oreos? Hehe.
Posted by Fairy on 16-Jul-2006, 11:03 MYT

#16. Look At 'The Hand'

This remind me of my own experience in Jakarta.

Few months back...I was trying to double-parked my friend's Xenia in front of another car, and after a complete stop, I was stumbled upon the sign flashed by the guy (park attendant) who made a hand gesture like a ring 'O'

My friend laughing at me coz I couldn't decipher those guy's unknown 'code'.

But all that he was trying to tell me was 'neutralized your gear please'.

Fairy, next time you should put more attention to the hand gesture of the park attendant.. and see what you got!

Although I'm an Indonesian, but I spent long years back in KL, thus same like you, I hardly recognized such thing in KL.

In my hometown (Sumatra) we have brick for brake, that hand gesture is not common.

But now I love it...
Posted by Donny Wahyudi - Website on 14-Jul-2006, 11:12 MYT

#15. Foto yang paling atas seperti di Jatinegara. Belanja apa disitu fai? burung, ular, jangkrik atau apa? Di Jakarta yang jelas harus punya mobil kecil dan datang lebih pagi untuk mendapatkan ruang parkir. Ya kalo bisa sih mobil yang bisa dilipat2 dan di masukin tas
Posted by Roedi on 12-Jul-2006, 23:22 MYT

#14. Well,ive had some experience doing this,too (surprise) at my company's premise parking lot! But we dont need bricks as the parking lot is pretty level.And to push one car without the brakes set,is quite manageable,by 1 person.(i did that too quite often)

But yeah,the macet in Medan was also horrifying with the becak motor,angkot and all.Just got back from Sumatera and i brought back Teh botol/teh kotak as usual! Hehe.
Posted by Budiman "chino" Arif - Website on 12-Jul-2006, 14:44 MYT

#13. CHINUE: Thanks! I'm a bit surprised by how warmly this article is received by people - I guess we all can really relate to the horrors that is traffic, driving and parking, regardless of where we are! Well OK lah Jakarta takes the cake for being the worst I've seen so far, hats off to you all there who take it like the real traffic champs you are.
Posted by Fairy on 12-Jul-2006, 01:27 MYT

#12. fairy: na.. non-power-steering car in jakarta! come on, fairy! i should' have Slyvester Stallone arms by now the latter one is more likely..he3 nice article u got here, fairy! something i've taken for granted, buy yet painfully interesting . only u can come up with such article!!
Posted by chinue on 12-Jul-2006, 00:37 MYT

#11. CHINUE: What are you doing that's adding muscles to your arms when parking, driving a non-power-steering car or consistently finger-giving?

DHAIMA: That is precisely my point, it is not common in Malaysia to practice putting down the hand brake when parking (let alone using bricks to stop the cars from moving), and we certainly don't have many parking attendees manning our open car parks save for the person working the toll booth (if it's not already automated).
Posted by Fairy on 11-Jul-2006, 15:20 MYT

#10. well its not common in malaysia to practise it,but i encountered it in the lrt parking station in gombak.my mom was shock about it..but well it'll be a very shocking story that our neighbour really practise it..heheh
Posted by dhaima - Website on 11-Jul-2006, 14:11 MYT

#9. i'm tearing up.. reading this article.. reminding me of my struggle every single day in Jakarta.. the good thing is parking in jakarta give u a good exercise for ur arms..
Posted by chinue on 11-Jul-2006, 00:59 MYT

#8. LIN:
I also want to add, have you ever seen parking using stone stoppers and manual pushing by parking attendants at say, KLCC or Midvalley Mall? Hehe, I doubt it! I've seen this sort of practice done by uniformed guys at Plaza Senayan, one of Jakarta's nicer poshy malls.

ENDA:
I would have thought Bangkok had similar practices to Jakarta in terms of parking but I guess they're more similar to us in KL!

HISHAM:
Having more human touch is better no? Sometimes it's always the cities with crazy traffic rules that seem to do better with parking management. Yes I do agree that parking in KL is nothing more than cruel extortion! You can easily rack up parking fee of more than RM20 on weekdays for a few hours at KLCC... gah.
Posted by Fairy - Website on 10-Jul-2006, 17:42 MYT

#7. yeah, we have been so used to have tukang parkir around we thinks that it's common practice everywhere.

there's only one place all over bangkok that i can see tukang parkir and i've never failed mentioning this to all my friends when they come visit us hehehe
Posted by enda - Website on 10-Jul-2006, 16:46 MYT

#6. It's the same thing here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia but I'll tell you something - it's way better than having to pay HUGE sums of RM for parking in KL where the parking operators bear no responsibility for anything but extorting ludicrous amounts of RM from vehicle owners. In KL, I'd rather stay home than waste RM for parking. Here it's crazy to drive but at least nobody's extorting money from me to park and nobody goes berserk when you're double-parked behind life's goooooddddddd
Posted by hisham on 10-Jul-2006, 14:26 MYT

#5. ha! so funny! Yeah Indonesians are strong people *cough*. I wish we got taught drving etiquette in my Indonesian class in school (Chisholm College, Perth, Australia)...and i thought Malaysian driving was bad!!!
Posted by Joel on 9-Jul-2006, 15:49 MYT

#4. Ah, LIN, so we have come to progress as much as the Indonesians? This article was written two years ago, so perhaps then there weren't as many cars as there are today. But then again I hardly leave my car at the LRT station so I might be a little bit on the ignorant side on this.
Posted by Fairy on 9-Jul-2006, 13:37 MYT

#3. Actually Fairy babe. The 'leaving your brake in neutral and wedging stones under tyres' is exactly what they do at the Kelana Jaya LRT station parking lot.
Too many cars. too little space.

Posted by Lin on 9-Jul-2006, 11:48 MYT

#2. DANI: Are you sure dirty looks are all I'll get? Sounds like a good wallop from the tukang parkirs are due if I pull a stunt like asking them for parking vouchers.
Posted by Fairy on 9-Jul-2006, 04:48 MYT

#1. I suppose the need to double park stems out of the lack of parking space. In Jakarta there's no parking space-to-building-ac reage ratio when it comes to building codes, so people will have some ruko's (rumah toko's) along the road with 7-8 tenants with enough parking spaces for only 20 cars. And those parking attendants, just ask them for a parking voucher next time as you leave the parking space. I bet they'll give you a dirty look, leaving you the rights to zig zag through Jakarta streets without paying a dime for parking.
Posted by Dani - Website on 9-Jul-2006, 02:55 MYT

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