New per minute parking charges for motorcycles

Motorcyclists who stop briefly at carparks will benefit from a new per minute charging system starting today, reported The Straits Times.

Currently bikers pay a flat rate of 65 cents for each day or night parking session, regardless of how many times they enter or leave the car park in that period. However, under the new system they will be charged 0.3 cents per minute - equal to 20 cents an hour - up to a maximum cap of 65 cents per parking session. The existing grace period of 10 minutes will remain unchanged.

Introduced by the Housing Development Board (HDB) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the new rate will apply to more than 500 of their carparks installed with the electronic parking system.

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan, who announced the change in a blog post yesterday, said it would particularly benefit delivery and despatch riders.

A joint statement by the HDB and the URA said that under the new rates, a despatch motorcyclist who makes five trips a day to these carparks for 20 days a month, with each trip lasting 15 minutes, can save $720 a year.