Pavel Vyhnánek (Prague sebo): Paid parking zones
photo: Vít Hassan for PrahaIN.cz/Pavel Vyhnánek
POLITICIANS IN THEIR OWN WORDS Member of the council m of Prague and Prague 7 for Prague on their Facebook on October 14 to pay parking zones
In my imaginary storehouse of conversational topics, I have a big closet called “Capital Budget. m of Prague”. There is a box tucked into the upper part of the cabinet. And it says:
PAID PARKING ZONES – DO NOT OPEN
However, such bans never let me sleep. It was therefore only a matter of time before I broke this one as well, although I know very well what will follow.
Paid parking zones are areas on the territory of the capital. m of Prague, where you can park your car only after paying the appropriate fee. In the case of residential parking, you must also provide proof of your permanent residence. Fees are the income of the capital. m of Prague and a number of myths circulate around them, which are also popularly spread by representatives of the city districts and the city itself.
I tried to let you know what is happening with the income from the paid parking zone and what volumes they reach. It’s nothing complicated. The city collects the money, deducts the costs of administration and operation of the zone and keeps half of the resulting net income. The second half is made up of the city district, in which the specific paid parking zones are located and which always have to agree to the resulting zone.
In relation to the total income of the city, the income from the paid parking zone represents, in its small way, less than 0.25% of the total income. It is primarily a regulatory tool that is important for the area of traffic at rest, not the budget.
In particular, the residential parking fee is rather symbolic, considering the total cost of acquiring and operating a car and the usual price for occupying a public space, which is thirty times that. There is therefore room for its increase here, but the outgoing coalition never had enough votes for this step.
So far, I’ve only gotten on the nerves of car owners. But don’t think that I can’t piss off public transport lovers like myself. We have to answer the question of what we could do with the extra funds thus obtained.
In the recent past, I came across the idea that we could subsidize public transport from parking fees. That’s a nice idea, but an unrealistic one. We are currently subsidizing public transport in the amount of approximately 17.5 billion crowns per year. Compare this amount with the net income from the paid parking zone. In order to have any financial transfer at all, we would have to increase parking fees at least tenfold!
This is unthinkable and unenforceable in the next few years. So we are left with two options. Either aim for less less less fee increase and its promise to use these additional revenues for investments in the area of parking capacities. Or do nothing and wait together until it gets better.