The ‘choping’ behaviour is unspoken accepted practice in Singapore. It’s especially prevalent in coffee shops and food courts where diners ‘chope’ their tables with tissue paper before leaving to order food.
However, taking this convenience too far may tick others off.
One driver recently took to the Complaint Singapore Facebook group to air their grievances over another driver’s method of ‘choping’ their lot.
The driver used a potted plant to block off one of the parallel parking lots at a carpark in Bendemeer.
This garnered a slew of criticism from netizens, who pointed out how such behaviour was inconsiderate and illegal.
In the Facebook post captioned, “This one win liao lor grandfather road”, OP expressed their annoyance over a driver reserving a public parking spot at Jalan Semerbak.
A picture attached revealed a parking lot on an empty street occupied by a potted plant sitting atop a three-legged stand.
The OP did not specify if this was a one-off or repeating occurrence.
However, the driver resorting to such means to reserve a lot can presumably be attributed to private property owners not having sufficient parking lots.
As such, those who do not manage to get a lot early enough will have to travel further away to park, presenting a hassle to those who live there.
In addition to being inconsiderate, obstructing roads with items is illegal in Singapore.
According to the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act 1906, individuals may be fined up to S$5,000 for placing articles on the public road to cause an obstruction, or for making road use less convenient.
In a reshare of the OP’s post on ROADS.sg, several netizens shared their two cents on the driver’s method of reserving a lot.
One user pointed out that reserving lots at private estates is not a novel concept. People have long been using dustbins and traffic cones to reserve lots.
They added authorities should deal with these offenders since such practices are becoming increasingly normalised.
Another Facebook user shared that they have driven past the area several times and have not witnessed such behaviour.
They suggested that the owner may have temporarily put the plant there for sunlight, rather than trying to reserve the lot.
However, another user quickly rebutted that the placement of the plant makes this theory rather unlikely.
Writing in an obvious tongue-in-cheek manner, another Facebook user quipped that the plant may have been a new type of “green car”.
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Featured image adapted from Complaint SG on Facebook.
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