MORE shopping centres are taking away motorcycle parking lots and bikers here are not happy.
Malls in town and in the heartland cite various reasons for doing so, including space limitations, as well as physical conditions which make driving dangerous for bikers.
Netizens are abuzz. On a forum at www.singaporebikes.com, 1Seth1 said: "Give up two car lots and you can park four to eight motorbikes. It's so unfair."
R&D engineer Ng Hun Yang, 33, told my paper that he found out West Mall has stopped motorcycles from parking there since last month.
Mr Ng lamented: "There're more and more malls that don't allow motorcycles to park."
He would have preferred the malls to charge for parking instead of taking away the lots.
Some malls like Centepoint still have free motorbike parking.
Malls that do away with motorbike parking say there is available parking nearby.
"One safety concern is that motorbikes may speed inside a mall's carpark," said Mr Steven Goh of The Association of Shopping Centres' secretariat.
For Shaw House and Shaw Centre, the "narrow five-storey ramp" into the carpark is steep, said Mr Terence Heng, vice-president of media at Shaw Organisation.
A CapitaLand spokesman said that while its Junction 8 mall does not allow public parking for motorbikes, it has season parking for a "limited number of lots".
Design experts said carparks here are designed less with motorbikes in mind.
Mr Dennis Goh, a lecturer at the Singapore Polytechnic School of Built Environment, said the width, radius and gradient of most carpark ramps are designed to accommodate cars rather than motorcycles.
Some suggest having separate parking facilities for cars and motorbikes.
Mr Tai Lee Siang, president of the Singapore Institute of Architects, said this ensures motorcycles and cars do not get in each other's way.
