How the expansion of paid parking robs the taxpayer

Author: Filip Petrov

The city council does NOT want to solve the parking problem – their only goal is to collect as much money as possible! Introducing paid parking zones only partially overlaps the two things, but it is a piecemeal job, not a comprehensive solution to the problem.

Where is the yellow zone?

If the municipality wanted to solve the parking problems, they would introduce the so-called "Yellow Zone". And not only in the Lozenets district, but literally in the entire city. In fact, it should be in the entire country! The yellow zone is legally regulated as "controlled free parking" for public parking spaces. Simply put, there are marked parking spaces on municipal streets and if they are not respected, the car is lifted by a spider and a fine is imposed. The fine in question justifies the price of the truck and the salaries of the people who perform this service. The idea of this zone is exactly what most people really want - no cars on the sidewalks and parking in a civilized manner, no cars on the lawns, etc.

Why then is the whole city not a yellow zone? Why have most of you probably not even heard of it? The answer is that the yellow zone does not bring profit to the municipality! It can solve people's problems, it can bring salaries to a few hundred people who will serve it (they can quite normally be private companies), but it cannot accumulate millions in the budget, which can then be wasted in all sorts of well-known and vicious ways. That is why there is no talk about the yellow zone at all and people in general do not even know that such a thing exists.

Why does the municipality prefer paid parking zones?

Instead of solving people's problems by gradually introducing yellow zones, the municipality is aiming for something completely different. Paid parking zones are being outlined, from where taxpayer money starts to be sucked out. Paid parking is nothing more than a new tax (and they had promised not to raise taxes, remember?).

Останалите квартали, които не са включени в никакви зони, нарочно ги оставят на произвола на съдбата. Ако някой в Младост паркира пред гаража Ви и се обадите на ЦГМ, те ще Ви кажат най-учтиво, че ВИЕ трябва да платите, за да го отстранят (но те същевремено няма да пропуснат да си вземат втори път парите, налагайки глоба на нарушителя). Постепенно в кварталите, които са в близост до платеното паркиране, настъпва пълен хаос, защото хората започват да предпочитат да си оставят колата на безплатното място – очевидно е.

This naturally generates well-deserved dissatisfaction, which is subsequently used once again, but again not to solve the problem of the people in these affected neighborhoods, but to collect additional taxes from them - by expanding paid parking.

We should ask ourselves another important question - how long can they expand paid parking zones? Theoretically, if all people put up with something like this, they could cover the entire city with a Green Zone. What will they have achieved at this point? They will simply have imposed a new tax on the majority of the population. And yes, they will have solved the problems with illegally parked cars in a way similar to the aforementioned Yellow Zone. But there is another thing that is often overlooked - people's mobility will be hampered, because paid parking limits the time the car can stay. When you go with your family to visit your elderly parents, you will not only have to pay, but also count the remaining minutes, etc.

What about public transport?

There is a group of lobbyists for paid parking who believe that this is an attempt to encourage the use of public transport. This is partly true – it is true that there will be people who will abandon their cars and take trams, trolleybuses, buses and the metro. Perhaps there will be many of them and traffic in the capital will really be reduced. However, I always ask these lobbyists a very important and essential question – why have these same people not chosen public transport until now?

No, it's not because it's cheaper with their car. A car is a much more expensive pleasure than a GT card. People who can't live without a car will continue to use it, even if there is paid parking - they are at a dead end. For the rest, those who, for example, travel daily only to work and back, a car is many times more expensive than a bus. Despite this, they have chosen a car.

The reason is actually obvious – public transport is inconvenient, dirty and unpleasant! Trams and buses are crowded with people. Very unhygienic people often get on board, who stink terribly and make the trip disgusting. In general, its condition is subject to all kinds of criticism. The exception, of course, is the metro, which we have thanks to the EU, not the gentlemen of the municipality. Why aren't there enough conductors in public transport to monitor order, cleanliness and take care of the problem with free riders? No, this is not exotic – there are even Bulgarian cities with an excellent example that this works, and does not cost the budget significantly more.

What is the whole scheme?

Well, let's get back to the main topic. Instead of making public transport clean and comfortable, lobbyists propose to financially punish ordinary people to force them to use dirty and uncomfortable transport? Have you guessed why they do it? There is no direct economic benefit for municipal residents from clean and comfortable public transport, that's all!

They have no incentive to do this because it will not fill their coffers. On the contrary, they desperately want the thing called "urban transport" to exist and work, so that there are no dissatisfied people, and at the same time the economic benefit from them comes from the rest of us, who pay through taxes and excise duties for the luxury of not using urban transport. Have you noticed the vicious practice - they are deliberately doing a bad job of the service they are obliged to provide, so that people can subsequently give them extra money.

In conclusion…

It is precisely because of all the above that I claim that the municipal authorities do NOT want to solve the parking problems in Sofia. If they wanted to, they could have done it a long time ago. They want something completely different - they want to raise taxes so they can steal even more.

In conclusion, I will naturally open a big parenthesis – paid parking is not completely harmful. It has its function in areas with saturated commercial areas – for example, around markets, as well as in the center where there are many business buildings, around hospitals as well, etc. In such places it is completely normal to have isolated parking lots with a blue zone – there is nothing wrong with that. For residential areas, however, this is just an additional tax that unnecessarily burdens the population.

Image source: Dnevnik.bg, Dir.bg

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