Moscow is awaiting the next stage of expansion of the paid parking zone. Officials have not yet announced specific areas and deadlines, but it is obvious that we are talking about residential areas - in all others they are already charging money for parking. At the same time, the authorities do not rule out increasing existing parking rates. Experts believe that protests by citizens and activists dissatisfied with the transport policy of the authorities, which swept Moscow at the end of last year, should not be expected.
Like assumed"Gazeta.Ru" back in April, the paid parking zone in Moscow will continue to expand, and this will most likely happen in 2016. The capital authorities, who previously actively purchased the necessary road signs and plates, and also held tenders for installation work, will in the next few weeks decide on new areas of the city where they will have to pay for parking. Maxim Liksutov, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport Issues, reported sad news for many drivers on Thursday.
“We are now working on proposals to expand the paid parking zone. In about a month we will know in which places it is advisable to do this and what tariff will apply there.
I think that in a month we will have such a program,” Liksutov said. - In Moscow, we are implementing a program to develop parking only in selected locations; where there are problems with congestion, this practice will continue. We analyze the use of parking spaces from the point of view of congestion on city streets.”
The official noted that the capital's authorities will not reduce parking rates in the central part of the city, and did not rule out that prices, on the contrary, will be increased.
Now the most expensive parking in the capital is on a number of streets of the Boulevard Ring and next to the Moscow City business center. The first hour of parking here costs motorists 80 rubles, and each subsequent hour costs 130 rubles. The parking tariff inside the Garden Ring is 60 rubles. per hour, and from Sadovoy and further, up to the territories beyond the Moscow Ring Road, - 40 rubles. at one o'clock.
“Colleagues recommended changing the cost of parking no more than once every six months,” said Liksutov. - It was also recommended to look at the tariffs so that there are always free parking spaces and special places for residents.
There is no need to talk about reducing tariffs; whether tariffs will change or increase is a matter of our internal research and analysis.”
Liksutov did not specify who exactly is now offering the Department of Transport places to introduce a paid parking regime. Previously, the Department of Transport assured that such proposals come from local residents and municipal deputies. However, the municipal deputies themselves denied this, explaining that in fact, lists with street names were sent to municipalities from the mayor’s office. Moreover, even if the majority of district deputies were against expansion, their position was not taken into account.
In July 2016, when, in fact, the next expansion was announced, Liksutov again stated that Muscovites themselves are asking to introduce a fee for parking.
“The working group on paid parking at the Department of Transport has not met for probably two years now. It was not abolished, but there is no hope that they will at least formally discuss and agree on something with us,” the deputy chairman of the Council tells Gazeta.Ru municipalities Moscow Ilya Sviridov.
Let us recall that paid parking space was expanded in Moscow in stages starting in the fall of 2012; money for parking began to be taken from motorists, first only on a few streets in the center of Moscow, and soon throughout the entire territory inside the Boulevard Ring.
After each successive stage of expansion, capital officials - both Maxim Liksutov and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin - assured Muscovites that they had no plans for further expansion of paid parking. But very soon they appeared and were quickly implemented. Thus, the toll zone first went beyond the Boulevard Ring, then beyond the Sadovoy Ring and, having occupied all the space inside the Third Ring Road, eventually reached the Moscow Ring Road.
There are now 67.5 thousand paid parking spaces in the city.
It is worth noting that the announcement about the introduction of another paid parking zone was made shortly after the State Duma elections. “Of course, this was done on purpose,” Anton Tarasov, the municipal deputy of the Airport district, tells Gazeta.Ru. -
But still, I think there will be no protests like last winter, when there was another stage of expansion. The State Duma elections showed that the population fully supports the existing government. But officials still don’t listen to those who are against it.”
The interlocutor also notes that he does not know how and with whom the Department of Transport will this time coordinate the addresses where paid parking spaces will appear. “If, like last time, we receive a list of streets from the mayor’s office for approval, then I will contact the prosecutor’s office, because the municipal deputies do not have the authority to make such approvals - this is illegal. Previously, I managed to remove the issue of introducing new paid parking in the area from the agenda after I threatened my fellow deputies with appealing to the supervisory authority,” says Tarasov.
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 in itself except that it will become next collection 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 take vacations, after which in October - November we will do a serious analysis and make a decision,” the deputy mayor explained.
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 bandwidth roads 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 from December 26 current year In 47 districts of Moscow, a targeted expansion of parking space is being organized. The changes will affect 206 streets, which is 4% of total number city streets. 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 in a short time near social facilities, pharmacies or shops in your 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.
