MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. The next expansion of paid parking space will not bring the expected effect of relieving the city's road network; this issue needs to be discussed on the portal " Active Citizen"or at a kind of referendum, where every Muscovite will be able to express their opinion on the plans of the capital authorities. Experts interviewed by a TASS correspondent reported this on Wednesday.
The authorities did not keep their promise
“I doubt that the majority of motorists can come out with a request for the introduction of new paid parking. Perhaps these ideas will be expressed by Muscovites who do not drive cars, some anonymous community. These 100 - 200 letters that will come to the Department of Transport do not mean at all "that all Muscovites support this idea. I think that such issues should be resolved in a kind of referendum," says Sergei Radko, lawyer for the Social Movement of Motorists "Freedom of Choice".
According to him, a year ago paid parking was introduced in the Otradnoye district, “where there have never been traffic jams.” “I live there and see the real situation. And I don’t know a single resident of the area who would advocate expanding parking space,” Radko noted.
“I don’t see any need for another expansion of parking space. When this was introduced at the pilot project stage, we were all told that this was being introduced in order to study how it affects traffic jams, and that supposedly parking lots would appear where traffic was very difficult. "In practice, we have seen that parking has now reached residential areas, where there have never been traffic jams. This idea does not bring anything good except that it will become another collection of money from our pockets," said the agency's interlocutor.
Parking should be discussed at "Active Citizen"
“Let’s decide on the Active Citizen portal not what color to paint the benches, but does Moscow need another expansion of parking space?” asks the chairman of the Russian Motorists Movement, Viktor Pokhmelkin. According to him, “even though it will be relative, it will be an indicator of public opinion.”
“I remain a principled opponent of paid parking. If it is still possible to somehow justify the introduction of paid parking in the city center and inside the Garden Ring, then outside the Garden Ring and the Third Transport Ring this is not caused by any need. This cannot be explained by the desire to relieve traffic flows, this is nothing else like pumping money out of motorists. In my opinion, the Department of Transport is already starting to play with fire,” said the agency’s interlocutor.
The issue has become political
According to Leonid Olshansky, vice-president of the Russian Motorists Movement, “paid parking has long acquired a political character.” “If we look at the programs of parties and candidates for deputies in single-mandate constituencies, we will see that most of them have turned their faces to motorists. And they all talk about not having paid entry into our cities, so that the cases when it is allowed to attract tow trucks, and to reduce the number of paid parking. I believe that on the eve of the State Duma elections, pensions and scholarships need to be increased, and fines and the number of paid parking reduced," the expert said.
“Paid parking causes and will continue to cause social instability in society, and Moscow is 10% of voters. It is clearly inappropriate to expand parking space, and this will cause parties to lose votes. Motorists will be indignant,” the agency’s interlocutor noted.
Inflation amid parking expansion
According to Olshansky, the increase in fines, the cost of compulsory motor insurance and the amount of paid parking are additional burdens for motorists. This, according to the expert, could ultimately lead to increased inflation.
“Motorists will transfer all of the above loads to consumers, what does this mean? It will be more expensive to bring logs and cement to a construction site, it will be more expensive to bring sausage to a grocery store, fabric to a tailor shop. Transport greatly affects the cost of any product. Paid parking has a hidden effect on the increase cost, and therefore - to inflation," Olshansky said.
Plans for another expansion
Earlier, Deputy Mayor of Moscow Maxim Liksutov said that the Moscow authorities do not exclude the possibility of expanding paid parking in the capital in 2016. According to him, the transport department has already received several hundred relevant requests from Muscovites.
However, the deputy mayor noted that the decision to introduce new parking spaces will be made after discussion with residents and municipal deputies, as well as after an in-depth analysis of each potential parking space.
"We will take measurements, see who uses these places, how many violations there are, which days and hours are the busiest. Unfortunately, summer is not a very correct indicator of occupancy statistics. It takes time to evaluate and make the right informed decision. We will wait until everyone will return and go on vacation, after which we will do a serious analysis in October - November and make a decision,” the deputy mayor explained.
Support the petition against expanding the paid parking zone! Recently, information appeared in the media that in December of this year it is planned to introduce paid parking on another 222 streets in Moscow. Another “gift” from the Department of Transport does not allow us to remain silent any longer. Paid parking has expanded throughout the entire city up to the Moscow Ring Road, although we were assured after the commissioning of each subsequent section that there would be no more expansion, this was a pilot project, but now they have entered the quiet streets of residential areas, industrial zones, and railways. train stations, airports, markets, shopping centers, business centers and gave rise to a silent question: what is happening to our city?
Why should we “pay for air”? This did not exist 5 years ago. On many streets where paid parking has already been introduced, there is not the slightest reason for its introduction, if the goal is precisely to combat traffic jams, and not to replenish the budget by any means. And here's another list.
Let's be honest with ourselves. Paid parking behind the Garden Ring, and even more so behind the Third Transport Road, does not serve the purpose of relieving the city of traffic jams, it’s already like a drug - having once tried to get into the pockets of car owners under the pretext of fighting traffic jams, it is now impossible to refuse such easy money. But excuse me, we already pay a lot of money to own a car, and besides, the costs are constantly growing.
For example, we buy fuel, which has doubled in price in less than 10 years, and we are forced to buy a compulsory motor liability insurance policy, which since 2014. has increased in price by 90%, we pay fines that have increased 10 times or more in recent years, we pay for travel on toll roads and, in addition, transport tax, is this really not enough?
Almost all citizens of the city are weakened by the crisis, many cannot find work, and almost every citizen has lost income over the past couple of years. But let's get back to paid parking. The Department of Transport does not listen to Muscovites. In the end, for whom are all these improvements to the transport situation being introduced, if they only cause irritation and negativity among ordinary car owners, as confirmed by rallies, petitions, and letters? At the same time, the next expansion is presented to us almost as a favor, supposedly this is happening at the numerous requests of Muscovites themselves, they themselves ask to introduce paid parking and install prohibitory signs, and also all of these actions are coordinated with municipal deputies and only after their consent the next “pilot project” " is being implemented.
I conducted a survey among a dozen acquaintances, including those living in the paid parking zone, as well as one municipal deputy. And it’s hard to imagine a deputy who would agree to make paid parking in his area, so that he and his relatives would henceforth park their cars for money. Naturally, as expected, none of them were asked for their opinion. They say that all the money collected from paid parking goes to improving the city.
How do you like the replacement of curbstones on Leninsky Prospekt this year? The curbstone, which would have stood for another half a century, was replaced for some reason. After replacing it, it was necessary to re-lay asphalt along the entire width of the avenue, as well as apply markings. You can imagine the costs this entailed. But why was this done? If the funds collected are used for such purposes, then it is better not to improve anything and not charge for parking.
Thus, it is planned to make almost the entire North-Western Administrative District of Moscow pay. In particular, Marshal Proshlyakov Street, in Strogino, included in this list, is an industrial zone. I wonder which of the residents asked the Department of Transport to make parking on this street payable, if there are no residential buildings there, there are gray fences, dogs and businesses all around?
- Paid parking only causes negative emotions, undermines the family budget, takes up time to pay, while in Moscow there are still many hours of traffic jams, no matter what statistics the interested parties cite.
Let's let drivers decide for themselves; if traffic jams reach such a scale that the loss of time becomes too great, they will switch to the metro themselves. Those who need to drive quickly still drive with flashing lights. A car is simply necessary for Moscow with its distances, business, and business purchases. And there is no need to force us to use public transport. This contradicts Article 27 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which states that every citizen has the right to free movement. And movement sooner or later ends in a stop. If stopping is prohibited or paid, this is a restriction of movement. I hope the senior management of the Department of Transport supports their policy and gets to work by public transport?
By the way, just the other day a decision was made to increase parking fees in the central part of Moscow to 200 rubles. Raising the tariff to 200 rubles. motivated by the fact that paid parking spaces in the center are almost 100% occupied, and should be no more than 80% occupied, according to “experts.” In order to reduce the workload to 80%, the tariff was increased to 200 rubles. But we understand why all parking spaces are 100% occupied. First, “No Stopping” signs were installed en masse, prohibiting parking on the lion’s share of streets and places, then paid parking with a limited number of spaces was introduced, and recently the center of Moscow was reconstructed, as a result of which sidewalks were significantly expanded, roads were narrowed, and as a result - There are very few parking spaces, and this despite the fact that there are fewer cars in Moscow every day. There was a deliberate policy of reducing parking spaces in order to then create competition for spaces and regularly increase fees. All that remains is to sell the parking spaces at auction.
We ask you to stop expanding the paid parking zone and increasing tariffs, remove the “no stopping” signs installed for the purpose of mass fines and evacuation, “turn your face to car owners” and listen to their opinion!
MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. The expansion of the paid parking zone, scheduled for December 26, will help relieve traffic flows and streamline traffic on the city’s road network, but charging fees in residential areas of Moscow on a 24-hour basis is impractical. This is the opinion of experts interviewed by a TASS correspondent.
Moscow doesn't make money from this
As the vice-rector of the Moscow Automobile Road Institute (MADI), head of the department of traffic management Sultan Zhankaziev noted, “it is important to understand that the parking space in Moscow is not a commercial project.” “There is an opinion that Moscow is supposedly making money from this. The cost part is much higher than the return of funds. The main task is to put in order the entire flow of vehicles that move both at the entrance to the city center and from the center,” he said.
“This is a forced set of measures that allows us to manage transit: access, through, and through, and most importantly, allows us to achieve maximum road capacity with minimal risk of traffic accidents,” the expert noted.
According to the head of the Probok.net portal, Alexander Shumsky, with the participation of the project, a study of parking space was carried out, which showed that the occupancy level was 70.49%. “We walked 223 streets between the Third Transport Ring and the Moscow Ring Road and noted that the biggest problems in residential areas exist on the streets where citizens’ attraction points are located - near metro stations, transport hubs, shopping and business centers, markets, large stores ", explained the agency's interlocutor.
There will be no load on the metro
Chairman of the Transport Association of the Moscow Agglomeration, head of the Department of Road Transportation at MADI Norayr Bludyan noted, “as long as we have such a difficult situation on the roads, any restrictive measure, including the introduction of new paid parking, has a place to be.”
“The day before, I had the imprudence to travel by car from the Sokol metro station to the city center. By metro this journey would have taken exactly 17 minutes, by personal transport I traveled 45 minutes. We have reached the phase when all the measures taken are exhausted and it is necessary make next decisions,” the expert said.
According to Zhankaziev, contrary to the popular belief that after expanding the parking space, the metro will not be able to cope with the increased passenger flow, this will not happen. “Those who say that the metro is already “choking” simply do not understand that if a significant share switches to the metro, the subway will not even notice it,” he noted.
“Let’s imagine: one car driving in the direction of the center occupies a certain space, a hundred such cars occupy a space that is comparable to the driving distance between traffic light objects. It turns out that a hundred cars can completely clog one of the directions between the traffic light objects, creating a traffic jam "And now let's imagine that these people abandoned the car and switched to the metro. We will immediately get unloading of one bottleneck and an insignificant increase in the load on the metro within an hour and a half," Zhankaziev added.
No need to pay on weekends
Chairman of the Russian Motorists Movement Viktor Pokhmelkin is convinced that charging for parking outside working hours and on weekends is inappropriate. “In Moscow, parking rates are prohibitively high, in the center - 80 rubles for the first hour, 130 rubles for the second hour. In other large cities where paid parking is being introduced, for example, in Perm, an hour costs 15 rubles, and the fee is charged only in weekdays and working hours. Moreover, on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as on weekdays in the morning and evening, you don’t have to pay,” he said.
The expert called this scenario “more or less reasonable,” since “local residents do not suffer from this.” “When paid parking reached the outskirts of the city, it is impossible to explain this by the desire to fight traffic jams. I have nothing against parking under the barrier - there are security guards there who are responsible for the safety of the car. But when a fee is charged for parking on the city’s road network - this is absolutely unlawful,” the agency’s interlocutor concluded.
Where will new paid parking be available?
Earlier, the press service of the capital's transport department TASS reported that starting from December 26 of this year, a targeted expansion of parking space will be organized in 47 districts of Moscow. The changes will affect 206 streets, which is 4% of the total number of streets in the city. These are hotbeds of accidents and places of greatest attraction for cars: near shopping and business centers, metro stations, railway stations, and ground transport stops.
The department noted that “on all streets included in the targeted expansion zone, today there is a problem of finding a place to park a car, primarily among local residents.” “As a result, drivers are forced to abandon cars with violations, which creates problems for both pedestrians and other road users, including public transport,” the agency’s interlocutor said.
In addition, due to the constant congestion of parking lots, local residents often not only cannot find a place to leave their car overnight, but also do not have the opportunity to simply park for a short time near social facilities, pharmacies or shops in their area. Now they will be able to obtain a free resident parking permit in their area from 20:00 to 08:00 Moscow time. Currently, local residents have 60,529 valid resident permits.
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