The expansion of the green zone in Sofia - issues from a public discussion

Author: Momchil Yakimov

On December 16, 2019, I attended the public discussion on expanding the green parking area in the Ivan Vazov residential area, Triaditsa district. At the same time, the media was discussing the increase in vehicle tax in Sofia by an average of 20 leva per car, which was later voted on by the Municipal Council with the 2020 Budget. If we make a comparison of the effect on municipal revenues, it would look like this:

• The annual sticker for a car in the green zone costs residents 100 leva, which is 5 times more than the planned 20 leva average increase in vehicle tax.
• If the household has two cars, the price of the second sticker is double, for a third car – triple, i.e. the difference increases to 10, respectively. 15 times
• The sticker is paid in advance for the period, not in installments throughout the year.
• The issuance of the sticker is subject to the presence of a registration number from the Sofia Traffic Police, which automatically forces drivers of cars registered in other regional cities or abroad to start paying vehicle tax according to their actual place of residence.
• There are also significant revenues from short-term parking (tickets, SMS) and fines, but let's assume approximately that they cover the operating costs of the zones.

In this way, with 765,000 LMPs liable for tax in the capital, the municipality has a potential source of stable revenue, while at the same time increasing the comfort of life in the neighborhoods, reducing congestion and pollution from automobile gases. That is, it should be extremely interested in introducing regulated parking in more places, but in reality, the resistance among some Sofia residents is causing the expansion of the zones to stall. The discussion in the Triaditsa district recalled some of the reasons for the existence of civil discontent, on which I would like to make a brief comment.

"They promised that they would use the revenue from the zone to repair the sidewalks, and then they forgot!"

• A valid objection, especially since two more taxes are being raised with a similar argument ("more money for the neighborhoods") from 2020. The process would have proceeded much more smoothly if Sofia residents had seen for themselves that the existing zones give residents something more than pegs driven into the remains of the sidewalk. If the areas with the zone are really being improved and aestheticized, as was initially stated, the arguments of the skeptics will fall away. It is important that this happens not whenever, but as soon as possible, so that the cause-and-effect relationship is visible.

"We need a special zone for our neighborhood because there are many establishments here (stadium, gym, Sunday school, university... etc.)"

• The more colors of zones with different conditions of use, the more confusing it becomes for the user and the higher the risk that a conscientious driver will turn out to be an unintentional violator. In this particular case, the Ivan Vazov residential area turned out to be busy with night club guests, sports enthusiasts at Rakovski station and visitors to the South Park on the weekend. The solution would be for the blue zone to extend its working hours to 24/7 and cover all parts of the city where the leisure industry is concentrated.

"Every year I waste 1 day carrying documents for a sticker"

• Meanwhile, the CGM has introduced the option for electronic application, but there is still room for improvement - renewal with one button, sending the sticker by courier, barcode for self-printing.

"When will public parking lots be built with the money from SMS?"

• This is a mass misconception that is easier to exploit politically than to refute once and for all. Those who are interested in expertise can pay attention to the occupancy rate of the public parking lot above the James Boucher metro station (500 spaces). At night, it varies from 15% in the warm months to 30% in the winter. The surrounding area is a green zone and residents clearly prefer an annual sticker. During the day, however, the occupancy rate increases to 90% thanks to those working in nearby office buildings and those who take the metro. In other words, the parking lot suddenly becomes a burden on the neighborhood because it attracts serious external traffic. Everyone should ask themselves whether they really want the same near their home.

"We want the places in front of our block to be only for our block"

• Here the municipality can be lenient. If a condominium wants to be removed from the zone, its members will also take on the responsibility of owners - they will guard, maintain and repair their own parking lot, and outside the yard they will park on a common basis - with coupons and SMS. The synergistic effect is an important advantage of the zone, which few blocks will voluntarily deprive themselves of.

"Why don't I get a guaranteed spot?"

• The sticker gives residents a price advantage over visitors and eases the influx, but the reserved private space is a separate subscription service of the Central Parking Lot with a different price, and no driver wants to go to another district of Sofia and find the streets there marked out for local residents in the way he imagines it for himself. If the spaces are fewer than the number of stickers, which is rare, there is a possibility of redrawing the parking lot around the house in order to balance with the less busy places. If this does not help, then we should move to the more restrictive blue zone. If there is a deficit in the blue zone as well, then the last measure is to increase the price of the service.

"Can't the abandoned cars be lifted and that way spaces can be freed up?"

• In order to remove an abandoned car from the street, it must literally be classified as waste and “cleaned” under the Cleanliness Ordinance, which in turn complies with other laws that were not intended to solve parking problems. This makes the procedure slow and inefficient, even though everything possible has been done (agree that a car with an unrenewed GTP for 2 years is rarely “waste”). On the contrary, the zones successfully filter out unscrupulous owners, so each expansion is accompanied by mass tourism of the so-called “IUMPs” to the next nearest neighborhood outside the zone, until they have to move from there too.

"Is it so impossible that without a zone, only the CGM can fine those who park illegally?"

• This does not solve the problem of external influx and parasitic consumption. Statistically speaking, the residents themselves have been turned into the most frequent violators, with the greatest risk of being the victims of salt fines themselves.

Finally, I asked for the microphone to speak, in which I drew the attention of those present in the hall that it is not known that in Sofia, a district with regulated parking has protested for the return of the old situation. The dissatisfaction is mainly directed at the non-transparent spending of the revenues collected by the Municipal Administration and the unfulfilled promises for the subsequent improvement of the urban environment. On the other hand, as experience shows, without order in parking, repairs to the vertical layout in Sofia are pointless - cars return and in a short time occupy and ruin what has been done. Inevitably, the time will come for updating the tax assessments of properties, and such an update will be difficult to protect in neighborhoods where nothing has been invested for years. An alternative to regulated parking in Sofia is clearly not in sight, and there is no point in beating the ball in one place. It is useful to convince people with examples that change for their neighborhood will not end with placing pegs on broken sidewalks and striating the crumbled asphalt.

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