The number of parking spaces for cars in Macau’s first and only open-air public carpark, located on Taipa’s Estrada Governador Albano de Oliveira near its junction with Avenida de Kwong Tung, will be increased by 20 to 61 from next Tuesday, the Transport Bureau (DSAT) has announced.
Correspondingly, the number of parking bays for heavy vehicles there will be decreased by 7 to 10, the bureau said in a statement on Friday.
The open-air public carpark, located outside the former Macau Jockey Club, opened in December last year.
Running alongside the now-defunct Macau Jockey Club, Estrada Governador Albano de Oliveira is a two-way road connecting an area near the Ocean Gardens estate and the Macau Stadium complex. The road’s dual carriageways are separated by a central area.
The outdoor carpark is located in a central area of Estrada Governador Albano de Oliveira near its junction with Avenida de Kwong Tung, i.e., outside the Nam San Garden residential estate.
Busy vs underused
Since the open-air carpark comprising 41 parking spaces for cars and 17 for heavy vehicles opened on December 11 last year, its parking area for cars has normally been busy, but its parking area for heavy vehicles has hardly been used at all. Some civic leaders and lawmakers have urged the government to convert the carpark’s spaces for heavy vehicles into ones for cars.
Friday’s DSAT statement said that with the aim of making better use of public parking resources, the bureau decided to adjust the open-air carpark’s distribution of parking spaces after consulting members of the government-appointed Traffic Consultative Council.
According to the statement, the new measure, which will take effect at 00:00 a.m. on Tuesday next week, will convert seven parking bays for heavy vehicles into ones for cars, because of which the number of parking spaces for cars will be increased from 41 to 61, while 10 parking spaces for heavy vehicles will be kept.
As seen by the Post on site on Monday evening, while the open-air carpark’s parking spaces for cars were almost full, no heavy vehicles were parked there. As seen by the Post, the bureau has already removed road markings for seven parking spaces for heavy vehicles, where new road markings for 20 car parking spaces have already been painted, but this newly-converted area was still closed because the new measure will only start on Tuesday next week.
Consequently, only 10 parking spaces for heavy vehicles are currently available there even though the new measure will only start next week.
Parking fees
According to local Chinese-language media reports, heavy vehicle drivers normally refrain from parking their vehicles in the open-air carpark on Estrada Governador Albano de Oliveira because of its perceived high parking fees.
In the carpark, cars are charged eight patacas per hour during the day (from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and four patacas per hour during the night (from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next day), while heavy vehicles are charged 10 patacas per hour during the day and five patacas per hour during the night.
The Estrada Governador Albano de Oliveira Public Transport Interchange, located next to the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Jockey Club Station, also has an underground parking area for heavy passenger vehicles, i.e., buses and tourist coaches, which came into use in May 2022, but, according to local media reports, the parking facility has also been underused since its operational start. Heavy passenger vehicles are charged 12 patacas per hour during the day and six patacas per hour during the night.
These three photos taken on Monday show (from left to right) the Estrada Governador Albano de Oliveira open-air public carpark’s parking area for cars, its parking area for heavy vehicles, and the area which was used as parking spaces for heavy vehicles and will become car parking spaces from next Tuesday. – Photos: Tony Wong
