Find ways to dispose of disused cars (Poll Inside)

An abandoned vehicle is not only an eyesore, but also a potential mosquito breeding ground. - Filepic

Incentivise owners to reduce number of abandoned vehicles

Abandoned vehicles with flat tyres, peeling paint and broken windows litter the suburban and urban landscape.

The owners are unwilling to properly dispose of their old vehicles or unaware of the process, so they are often left abandoned in public areas and end up becoming someone else’s problem.

These abandoned vehicles also take up valuable parking space, especially in crowded residential areas.

Not only are they an eyesore but they also pose a danger to surrounding communities.

They can hold stagnant water and become breeding grounds for Aedes mosquitoes or nesting sites for animals like snakes.

Engine fluid from these abandoned vehicles can leak and contaminate soil and water, causing environmental pollution.

As someone who lives in a stratified property scheme, I have observed that some parking bays are taken up by vehicles that have not been moved in a very long time.

As a result, many residents end up double-parking or parking outside the apartment complex because of a lack of available bays.

A recent work assignment took me to a people’s housing project in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, where there are some 1,600 units but very few parking bays.

A resident there said the parking situation was so bad that some resorted to parking in bays designated for the disabled, of which there are only eight.

“There are not enough bays to cater to the number of residents. But some just leave their cars here to rot,” said the resident.

Reports as of 2019 indicate that there are more than 60,000 abandoned vehicles that are still registered throughout the country.

Why don’t the local authorities just tow these vehicles away and dispose of them?

Unfortunately, the process is not so simple nor straightforward.

Once a complaint has been made, a warning notice is pasted on the vehicle under the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974 to alert owners to remove them within seven days.

At the same time, the local authority will check with the police and Road Transport Department (JPJ) if the vehicles have been blacklisted, involved in any criminal case or have outstanding summonses.

If not, only then is the vehicle towed away after the notice period expires – incurring a cost to the council.

At the depot, there is an even longer process before the unclaimed vehicles can be legally disposed of.

This leaves many vehicles clogging up the depots, which are typically rented at a high cost by local authorities.

In 2019, Petaling Jaya City Council reportedly spent RM564,000 on renting a large depot to store abandoned vehicles.

There has been some attempt to manage the problem though, with an amendment to the Road Transport Act 1987.

The Road Transport (Amendment) Bill 2018 empowers local authorities to remove abandoned vehicles as well as set a specific and detailed procedure with regard to the cancellation of registration numbers of abandoned vehicles.

In 2021, several local authorities in Selangor were also selected for a pilot project by the then Housing and Local Government ministry (now known as Local Government Development Ministry) to resolve the problem of unwanted vehicles left by the roadside.

In Kajang, abandoned vehicles will be towed to an authorised automotive treatment facility so that batteries, engine oil, air-conditioner gases, coolant and other components like plastic and metal parts can be segregated for reuse, recycling or recovery.

Recently, Ampang Jaya Municipal Council announced that it was seeking to manage cases of abandoned vehicles through a court process that would cut down the length of time needed to dispose of them.

Instead of taking more than a year, the process will be shortened to seven or eight months for each case.

Procedural improvements such as vehicle checks with the police and JPJ as well as vehicle deregistration are included in the new system.

With the new powers bestowed upon local authorities and the introduction of these new projects and processes, we should see faster response times for complaints on condemned vehicles.

At the same time, more emphasis should be placed on giving car owners a platform to dispose of their old or unused vehicles at minimum cost.

Owners can also be incentivised to participate in such efforts to properly dispose of their vehicles, ensuring that they are not dumped indiscriminately.