I’ve never gotten why people think that five minutes of illegal parking does not constitute illegal parking. After all, the rule is, you have to pay for a parking coupon for any length of time you’re parked there. Whatsoever. Where is this sub-clause that if you hog the place for only five minutes, you get to not pay at all?

Let’s ignore the fact that there’s no way to verify that you’ve really only been five minutes there, so allowing people to plead ‘only five minutes’ as an excuse would basically allow anyone who was ever fined to repeal their fines. Even if there was a way to verify thus, I still don’t see where the rule that five minutes doesn’t count comes from.

Here’s a consequentialist reason for charging even for five minutes: That five minutes of illegal parking is still an injustice — you’re still either obstructing traffic or depriving someone willing to pay legally for the place of a place. Of course, because of the rigidity of parking coupon prices in Singapore, the market often doesn’t clear and there are excess parking lots etc., but in order for us to have a coupon system at all, we have to accept these inconveniences and continue enforcing the rules that allow the market to clear as far as it can in other areas.

Another argument is that the chance of getting caught for any given five minute parking offence is very low. Most people who get caught have committed this offence multiple times until the low odds caught up with them. So they have really ‘cheated’ taxpayers (who subsidize HDB parking lots) of many, many blocks of five minutes. Again, the summons system is such that there will be a few unfortunate souls who get caught on their only offence, but these will be firmly in the minority.

In any case, I’ve never understood how you can stand splashing out on a car in Singapore and squeal about the comparatively tiny cost of a parking fine.