Are traffic cones illegal in your neighbourhood?

These days parking space in residential areas are scarce and modern problems require modern solutions right? Try and just take a walk around your residential area for a few mins. You might see some of your neighbour’s “booking” aka chupping a sidewalk or part of the road with a traffic cone, a wooden stand or sometimes even...a pail filled with concrete with a metal rod sticking out from it. This whole idea of “booking” sidewalks and roads are taken to the next level when your ‘taman’ is small, because everyone wants to claim their space. This can be quite annoying when your neighbour overdo it and ‘chup’ the entire neighbourhood leaving you without any parking space.

 So, the question now is, can you and your neighbour’s actually mark your spot with parking cones? Before we talk about the cones, could you actually park your car at the sidewalk?

Parking your car at the sidewalk is illegal

This can be found under section 46(1)(g) of The Street Drainage and Buildings Act 1974, where anyone who parks at the sidewalk will be liable for the offence of blocking the public spaces. This is because, you do not own the area outside your house even if the road is in your residential area.

This can be seen here where the MBSA tows away cars that are parked on the sidewalk in residential area. However, in an interview with a DBKL officer who stated that, They are fined with it as long as there no complaints about the cars parked at the sidewalk. However, if your neighbour parks in front of your house that has already been covered in another article.

[READ MORE: IF SOMEONE PARKS IN FRONT OF YOUR HOUSE IN MALAYSIA, WHAT CAN YOU DO?]

Placing cones on the road is actually illegal

Streets that are being maintained by the local authorities is a public space, according to section 63 Local Government Act 1963. 

Therefore, you and your neighbour could be liable for the offence of obstructing public spaces by placing parking cones to book your spot in the neighbourhood under section 46(1)(a) of The Street Drainage and Buildings Act 1974, especially if the streets in your area are being maintained by the local authorities.

Does this means that, you could actually sue your neighbour for putting those pesky cones around the neighbourhood?

It’s best to just talk it out with your neighbour first

Instead of staring a world war 3 between your neighbour and yourself, perhaps you might want to just settle the matter internally. In other words, you can just talk this out with your neighbour without having to go to the local council just because of a parking cone. As much as it can be annoying, some problems require simple solutions, especially if you live amongst other people. So, instead of aggravating the issue, try and compromise with your neighbours. However, what happens if your neighbour refuses to compromise with you?

You can always make a complaint to the local council

You should contact the local authorities (MBPJ,DBKL, etc.) since they have the power to remove those cones under section 46(3)(a) of The Street Drainage and Buildings Act 1974.

At the end of the day the DBKL officer said, ‘Just be a considerate neighbour and don’t disturb others. Then it should be fine.’