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A LARGE electronic board telling motorists where parking lots are available in the Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre area will go up next month, possibly along Nicoll Highway.
Suntec City, as the complex is called, and the Marina Square mall will become the Land Transport Authority's (LTA) first candidate for a new electronic parking guidance system that will tell motorists if and where lots are available - even before they enter the carpark.
This will be an improvement over the system in place in some malls where parking systems give motorists this information when they are already in the building.
Suntec City, the venue for 1,300 events last year, has 3,200 parking lots, but these are not enough whenever it hosts exhibitions that pull in over 100,000 visitors.
At such times, the jams in its carpark spill out onto and add to the congestion on the roads in the area.
Such a situation was among the problems identified in the Government's recent review of the island's land transport system.
Suntec's legendary parking problems came to the fore with the PC Show last May and Comex 2007 in August, which drew 150,000 and 118,000 visitors respectively.
Gadget enthusiast Vernon Ong, 38, who went to Comex, recalled the half an hour it took him - just to make it to the carpark entrance.
Even those who work in the Suntec area are not assured of a parking lot because of the limited number of season passes available.
Ms Felicia Tan, 32, who works in sales in Suntec Tower 4, said she and her colleagues regularly circle the carpark for 30 minutes, only to end up parking illegally or in nearby buildings.
Alternative nearby parking sites include Marina Square, Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Millenia Tower and One Raffles Link.
LTA's chief executive Yam Ah Mee said the new electronic parking guidance system outside buildings 'would cut down the number of cars circling the roads looking for lots and adding to the congestion'.
The Straits Times understands that the first such signboard will go up along Nicoll Highway, but the LTA declined to give more details.
It also declined to elaborate on the electronic system it is considering, which may be like the road-level systems elsewhere.
The one along the road leading to Sydney's Warringah Mall flashes the number of available lots; a similar system is in place in the inner city of Cologne, Germany.
Here, carpark technology in use is helpful only to motorists already in the carpark.
At 12 of the 15 malls belonging to real estate company CapitaLand, for example, the parking guidance system puts electronic signboards at the entry points and on each parking level to show the number of available lots.
Green indictors above empty lots and red ones over the taken ones show at a glance where empty lots are.
CapitaLand Retail chief executive Pua Seck Guan told The Straits Times that, besides making finding a lot easier, the system also cuts down exhaust emissions to the environment and saves fuel.
But the majority of carparks across the island are still not this helpful.
At these places, which include hospitals and malls, car parking headaches come on during peak hours and the weekends.
More intelligent and strategically placed electronic parking guidance systems will be welcomed by motorists, among them Madam Mary Tan, 33.
She dreads it every Saturday when she drives her seven-year-old twins for remedial classes at United Square.
She said: 'You should see how parents fight for lots by driving against traffic flow and speeding inside the carpark. It is ridiculous.'
juditht@sph.com.sg
aprilc@sph.com.sg
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