SummertimeMeans Europe Closes Down from Page 45
It is very easy and cheap to introduce a regime to make
short-stay visitors comply without paying, and the enforcement is funded fromthe fines for rule breakers, but that way the town can’tmake anymoney out of parking. Right or wrong, the local people expect free parking and are happy to pay for it through the council tax – that’s democracy. The new regime will make the people using the town cen-
ter look at using the edge-of-town superstore – to the “dis-ben- efit” of town center traders, and some shops will be closed. Oh, and the council won’t make money, because they will find that the cost of setting up and running such a small paid-parking scheme is way higher than they thought. And so guess what? The charges will go up, and the whole negative effect will feed on itself, at least until the next election. Remember “the Biggest Parking Project in theWorld” in
Abu Dhabi?The city center was going to be brought under con- trol in a project that was the equivalent of the whole of Central London. However, whereas London was evolved over 50 years, Abu Dhabi was going to be rolled out in just two to three years. After a whole lot of internal wrangling, the scheme is now
scheduled to kick off in October. The problemis that during the delay, the vehicle fleet has probably increased by over 50%, and I am not sure the solution is still the right one.We shall see. The council in Nottingham recently got the go-ahead for
its workplace parking levy. I have spoken about this
before.The council will charge an annual “tax” of about $375 for using each workplace parking space in the city center.
The law exists tomanage travel demand, not to raisemon-
ey. However, the only evidence I have been able to find is where the city talks about raising money to fund public trans- port.When this was looked at in London 30 years ago, it was shelved as unworkable. Will people stop using cars for a dollar-a-day tax? No. So
the scheme will raisemoney but will not change travel patterns. The start is planned for 2012, and between now and then, there will be a council election.Wonder what will happen?
Peter Guest is PT’s correspondent on all things European and Middle East. He can be reached at
peterguestparking@hotmail.co.uk.
PT
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SEPTEMBER 2009 • PARKING TODAY •
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