Toulouse: parking tickets disrupted on the bike budget
The money given to the town hall of Toulouse by the verbalization of paid parking not respected fed the bicycle budget.
The amount of Toulouse’s parking ticket, now called post-parking package, will be allocated to the Métropole’s bicycle budget. The decision was taken last Thursday by elected officials meeting in the metropolitan office. “It’s virtuous”, underlined Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse and president of the Metropolis.
In the Pink City, each FPS represents a cost of €30 for those who do not pay for street parking or who exceed the authorized duration. How much do these fines weigh in total? In 2019, the year preceding the Covid crisis, the receipts for the town hall from the minutes received a sum of €6.3 million in the budget.
From a simple financial point of view, this is therefore rather good news for cycling, especially since this amount should increase, at least in the short term, while Toulouse residents get used to the new control system. paid parking. On August 16, the town hall launched in the streets to monitor the 16,600 paid spaces a first car equipped with a camera and an automated registration plate reading system. On September 21, a second vehicle entered the race.
On that date, Emilion Esnault, deputy mayor in charge of security, assured that the number of fines had remained stable. But it does not remain: the system is extremely effective and the fraudsters were still numerous according to the last estimate of the town hall available.
An increased budget
This decision comes as Jean-Luc Moudenc is systematically attacked, on the opposition side, by environmental groups and Citizen Alternative on the bicycle budget deemed insufficient. At a press conference in September, the mayor responded by making bicycle policy his angle of attack for the start of the school year. He had recalled the figures: 80 M€ budgeted by the Metropolis – “but which will increase to 100 M€”, – he indicated yesterday during a presentation of the Climate Plan -, he adds 60 M€ coming from the envelope municipality of Toulouse and devoted to ensuring the continuity of the tracks, but also the €20 million for the future Ramier cycle and pedestrian footbridges, and the new VélôToulouse contract. “Never have my opponents who criticize me on this subject done so much,” he likes to advance regularly.