View
224
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
8/14/2019 Parking in Paris: not for the faint-hearted!
1/3
Parking in Paris, not
for the faint-hearted
Think of Parisian roads and you probablyhave an image of aggressive, fastdriving and parking anarchy - double,
even triple parking, cars parked at crazyangles, on pavements, down the middle ofthe road, and across zebra crossings. Andnose-to-tail, so that you have to shuntadjacent vehicles in order to get out. It iscertainly true that in the city centre, space isat a rea! prem:um; it can take almost as longto find a parking space as it does to eat ameal or see a film!
That is a driver's eye view. But how is thesystem run - and by whom? The Paris region(Ile-de-France) can be roughly equated insize with Greater London, while central Paris'proper' covers an area about seven miles by
administration, which gained increased trafficpowers earlier this year, has created an'urban mobility' plan, the aim of which is to cut
traffic by 5 per cent by restricting access fornon-Parisians. Rather than using tolls, as inLondon, the policy is to make parking cheapfor residents and expensive for others,including commuters. In practice, this means:controlling' traffic by standardising parking
fees; making underground car parksattractive; encouraging Parisians to park closeto home; and freeing public space forpedestrian use. This is balanced by the veryhigh subsidies to public transport and therequirement for employers to reimburse 50per cent of employee season ticket costs.
Current policy is biased in favour of
residents on the grounds that it is their cityand they should have freedom of movementwithin it. A feature of the policy is that non-residents are limited to two-hours' parking inthe city centre. High charges are re;nllydesigned to dissuade them from using theircars at all - especially for travel betweenhome and work (currently 59% of all journeysand BOOk of peak hour ones are by publictransport). In the suburbs there is a strongemphasis on inter-modal journeys, primarilythrough the provision of attractive park-and-ride facilities at stations.
On-street parkingSome 236,000 controlled on-street spaces(including 90,000 free ones) are available inthe city. Charges apply between 9am and7pm, with free parking virtually everywhere onSundays and public holidays (Saturdays andthe whole of August are also free of charge inmany streets). There are a further 400,000additional spaces in private garages and inthe courtyards of flats.The city is divided intothree charging zones. The basic hourly rate is
one euro (64p) and this is doubled for the
central area. The main business district has aspecial rate of E3 (:1.92) per hour while ratesfor car parks are roughly the same. Bycomparison, an Evening StcJndar:dsurvey ofcentral London car parks in April 2002, foundrates to vary from :2to 15 per hour.
Speciai arrangements exist for residentswithout garage space to park on the kerb-sidenear their homes, for up to 24 hours, at alower tariff of 50 cents (32p) per day for up toseven consecutive days. Payment can bemade on either a daily or a weekly basis.Spaces cannot, however, be guaranteed. Ondeclared high-pollution days, residential
8/14/2019 Parking in Paris: not for the faint-hearted!
2/3
account for roughly 60% of total spaces. All
12,577 meters accept the Paris-Carte and
about a quarter, which are colour-coded,
take cash as well. The proportion with coin
slots has been cut partly to reduce the huge
losses sustained through theft from meters.
Managi ng loading and unload in g is animportant i ss ue i n a ci ty that is desperately
short of road space. The solution has been to
divide c ommercial vehicles into t hr ee
categories, acc ording to their surface area,
and to impose limitations by size. All vehicles
c an l oad and unload anywhere duri ng thenight, between 7.30pm and 7.30am. Smaller
lorries and vans under 16 metres are banned
from bus lanes and key trunk roads during
rush hours, while those up to 24 metr es alsoface a total loading ban during the evening
peak. Commercial vehicles above this sizeare prohibited from making deliveries during
day-time hour s. In many parts of the city,
dedicated delivery bay s hav e been markedout. However, there is a major problem with
the number of motoris ts who use these f or
overnight parking. A campaign t o police thebays more effectively has recently been put
in place.
Tourist coaches are an even biggerproblem. During the summer, there are an
estimated 1,400 coaches on Paris's roads at
anyone time. To cope with t his, the council
has provided 650 p arking bays However,c oaches mus t pay t o use most of the on-
street bays and underground car parks.
Coaches are ba nne d entirely fro m certainbusy areas. In others, the Highway Code sets
a maximum pic k-up and s et-down perio d of
15 minutes, during which engines must beswitched off.
Paris, along with Berlin, Brussels, Madridand Rome, is part of the EU's Capitals ITTS
(Integrated Travel and Tourism Services)
project which, among other things, provides
real-time availabilit y of par ki ng s paces andrecommended routings for coach drivers.
Underground car parksAlongside the policy of managed chargingfor on-street parking, there has been a major
effort to b uild accessible off-street sit es and
a requirement that new residential buildings
contain adequat e underground parking. Thecouncil's motto is "streets are not garages".
By moving parked cars underground and
out-of-sight, the city becomes visually moreattractive and public s paces are 'liberated'
for the use of pedestrians, cyclists an d public
transport users. Not only d oes this allow
residents to park their vehicles in secure
conditions, it also frees the streets from
illegal parkers making them safer and moreattractive. At present, t here are 122
underground car parks, providing 70,000
spaces.
Most of Paris's underground car parks are
run as concessions or on separate leases. Of
the 13 operators involved, VINCI Park and
SAEMES (a public-private partnership, with
51 % of the share s h eld by the municipality)are the largest. Both companies also operate
private car parks in Paris.VINCI Park is re-evaluating its role in the
Paris parking market, alt hough i t is s til l
competing for additional contract s and t he
renewal of existing ones. Much depends onthe new team at City Hall - but the feeling in
the c ompany s eems t o be t hat no further
underground municipal car parks wil l be built
and, as the largest player in the market, thereis little chanc e of gaining more contracts or
even of keeping all the present ones. The
company's current policy is, therefore, to
concentrate on the private sector, with an
emphasis on new c ar parks in upmarket
affi~. ~
8/14/2019 Parking in Paris: not for the faint-hearted!
3/3
Both of the major c omp anies promote
themselves through the high quality of the
venues they control VINCI Park has a 10-point
customer charter. But circumstances can work
against the m ost perfect of promotions: on a
recent visit to one of VINCI Park's prime locationsin the Champs-Elysees, the burnt-out hulk of
what had once been a Renault Clio sat oozing oil
down the main driveway.
Parisian underground car parks have had a
terrible reputation for being gloomy, unsafe
places - an image encouraged by the French
cinema where they often feature in crime or
murder scenes. It is an expressed part of official
policy to rid them of this image. The Mayor's plan
to make car parks more attractive and
convenient ha s le d to the creation of a quality
charter s pec ifying strict standards forconstruction, operation and ambience. These
standards give a quality-guarantee to users:
competent, helpful staff, an attractive
environmen t a nd site-vetting on an annual basis.
The environmental requirements dictate
distinctive colours for each level, as well as anti-
dust paint for floors and the application of non-
skid surfaces. Lighting must be consistent and
eliminate eerie, dark corners.
Signage is also to be s tandardised in white
and orange, with green for pedestrian access
and blue for vehicle routes. Way-out signs must
be clearly lit a nd good quality public address
systems employed - good enough for music to
be played in pedestrian areas, such as in lifts
and ticket machines. Video surveillance of all
public areas is to be universal, with disabled-
accessible lifts that have intercoms linked
directly to on-site staff positions. Existing
facilities are required to progressively adopt allthese standards.
EnforcementParking tickets are issued by city-employed
wardens and fixed pen alty f ine s a re paid withfiscal stamp s ('timbre-amende'). These are
applied to a pre-addressed section of the ticketand posted to the authorities Anyone who
chooses not to pay (or, as many do, throws the
ticket away) faces an increased fine, which risesrapidly the longer it remains unpaid. The
approach taken after a presidential electiontends to undermine the system.
In te rn a ti o n a l r e v ie w : P a ri s
It has become a tradition that, following the
election, the new president announces a range
of motoring offences, committed prior to his
election, that will be wiped from the slate (see
page 21).
Bus lanes
The aspect of Delanoe's policy that causes mostconflict is probably the issue of bus lanes. In the
past, bus lanes were just that: a simple lane,
slightly wider than a bus, separated from the rest
of the carriageway by a white line. The n ew
policy is to have combined bus and cycle lanes
(wide enough for one to pass the other safely),
divided from the rest of the road by a concretebarrier.
The bus and cycle lanes are 14 feet (4 metres)
wide, although widths of up to 18 feet (5 metres)
have been tried. Motorist s are up in arms about
t he barriers, claiming that they are causing
chaos; while the new bus lanes are empty -
there are relatively few buses in Paris due to the
extensive Metro system - car drivers sit fuming
in massive traffic snarl-ups. When asked, a
transport department spokesman was unable to
justify the cur rent arr angements on trafficmanagement grounds, other than as an anti-
pollution measure that cuts journey times for
cycles, taxis and buses.
Present policy is to make better use of road
space (including the improvement of kerbside
discipline), extend bus lanes and introduce multi-
function parking cards compatible with the
Moneo electronic purse t o give c ard holders
more flexibility when choosing their mode of
travel .
Recommended