NO PARKING

The main cause of traffic jams in Baku is bad car parking. This was announced at a recent press conference by the director general of the Intellectual Transport Management Centre (ITMC), Elnur Abdullayev. The ITMC reached this conclusion from studies conducted on the basis of activities in 2012, although, in fact, there is no need to conduct serious research to find out the cause of traffic jams. A driver who gets behind the wheel every day car can see these problems with the naked eye. Speaking in the language of numbers, last year the centre recorded 12,815 cases of illegal parking. This causes a natural question: how to deal with it if you take into account that even such a measure as the evacuation of vehicles to penalty areas is not especially effective? Meanwhile, according to statistics, there are more than 700,000 cars in Baku alone today. And this figure is growing. The more cars there are, the less space there is for parking, and the price is higher and higher.

According to Abdullayev, relying in this matter only on the consciousness and discipline of drivers will not work, because experience shows that the system of persuasion, warnings, and self-control yields no results. Therefore, in order to solve the problem, a system that captures illegal parking is being developed, though it is still being tested. Abdullayev noted that it is ready and can be fully utilized. "The centre is taking steps to ensure that after the adoption of an appropriate law, the system works at full stretch. We plan to put it into operation next year. Another 'anti-congestion' measure will, of course, be the 'green wave' effect when the system intervenes with the work of traffic lights to control the traffic. By the way, this is a very effective method that we use today. The situation on the roads is watched by 149 employees of our department who control the work of traffic lights. This yields results - if at the beginning of last year, 2,778 vehicles per day passed through Izmir Street with an average speed of 21 kilometres per hour, then at the end of 2012 - 8,230 cars with an average speed of 52.5 kilometers per hour. The same is true for other busy roads of the capital. Some 1,900 devices have been installed in buses. It helps to record and prevent violations of traffic rules by their drivers. Over the past year, there were 4,339 cases of the use of mobile phones and 2,562 cases of smoking while driving a bus."

As for the question of parking, in the opinion of Abdullayev, the building of 160-170 overland car parks (each for 300-1,000 cars) will make its contribution to the settlement of this problem. In any case, there will be car parks for 2,000 vehicles too. At the same time, 3-4 large car parks for taxis will be built, as there is a need to increase their number to 2,000 units, Abdullayev said.

In parallel, it is planned to apply a single zonal tariff for parking. According to him, the proposals have been submitted to the Tariff Council, and it is expected that real steps in this direction will be taken during the year. It would be reasonable to consider the location of a car park when setting a single parking tariff. For example, in the centre, where parking is limited, the tariffs should be higher. This tariff system has long been practiced in Europe. "Now in Baku, there are different prices for parking. In fact, these are municipal tariffs, according to which the parking of one car costs 0.10 manats, which, however, does not work. In some places, you have to pay 1 manat for parking. The cost is higher closer to the centre. And we are not even talking about closed parking areas. It is high time to introduce common parking tariffs. This will prevent dubious "caretakers" from establishing different rates for parking, which leads to the fact that this area is practically not subjected to taxation, i.e. when parking, especially in open areas, drivers do not get any receipts, and therefore taxation is not possible. If dubious "caretakers" do not give receipts, there is no guarantee that nothing will happen to the car."

How does the zonal system of paying for parking in Europe work? For example, in London, most streets have meters, next to which a motorist can park his car. The meter indicates how much parking costs, how long they can keep the car there, and when parking is free (usually after 1830). The maximum duration of parking is usually no more than two hours. The cost of parking is determined by the local councils - municipal authorities that administer the thirty-three districts of the British capital. It depends not only on the district, and often varies even in neighbouring streets. For example, the highest cost of parking in London - 4 pounds per hour (about $ 7) - is in the city centre and popular shopping streets.

Despite the limitation of parking time and the high cost, parking in central London during the day is a huge problem. In other districts, the parking fee is much lower, but is no less than 1.5 pounds per hour. In the evenings and on weekends, parking in the centre of London is free. This is especially attractive, because the congestion charge, which is now 8 pounds, does not apply at this time. There is another kind of parking where residents of a certain street buy a resident permit. In the upmarket areas of London, it costs 5,000 pounds a year. Rank-and-file Britons working in central London cannot afford parking there, so they prefer to leave their car in a "cheap area" and get on public transport.

Fines for parking violations are very tangible. They vary depending on the district from 40 to 100 pounds, not to mention the fact that an offending car gets wheel-clamped or is taken to a penalty area. It costs from 45 to 60 pounds to buy it out. Revenues from fines and parking in London fill the budgets of district administrations, which, in turn, transfer part of the proceeds to the London City Hall budget.

One of the top lines in the ranking of the world's capitals with the highest parking prices is occupied by Amsterdam. Several years ago, the authorities in the capital of the Netherlands decided to liquidate all free parking zones in the centre. Today the cost of one hour of parking on the streets of Amsterdam starts from 0.9 euro (about 1 manat) in the suburbs, and in the historical centre it is almost six times higher (more than 5 manat). In addition, the city has a system of intercepting car parks - P&R. Paying 8 euros, a driver gets a 24-hour public transport ticket for himself and, if necessary, for two passengers, and can leave the car in a parking lot for 24 hours. The fee for parking services is charged through special machines, as well as by SMS. To park a car near you home, you need to get a resident permit. However, in order to get it, you need to queue and then pay 150 euros annually. This is despite the fact that the average salary in Amsterdam is about 5,000 euros a month, which means that the Dutch can afford such expensive parking. When setting a single tariff for parking in Baku, we must not forget about that.

Meanwhile, since the ITMC system does not work yet, the State Traffic Police Department (STPD) of the Baku Main Police Office is conducting its own struggle against the worst violators of parking rules. Starting from 20 February, an administrative report will be automatically compiled for a driver who double-parks or stops near road signs prohibiting stopping and parking, as well as on the road, bus stops, pavements and pedestrian crossings ("zebra"), near crossroads - with the help of on-board computers installed in traffic police cars. The vehicles of drivers who violate these requirements are photographed as they are parked and a protocol on the penalty and a photo are stuck to the windscreen. According to STPD chief Lieutenant-Colonel Vaqif Asadov, the amount of the fine is specified in line with the violation. For example, at the end of February, the STPD carried out a raid on compliance with the abovementioned requirements, during which more than 60 cars were photographed on Istiqlaliyat, Ahmad Cavad streets and Azerbaijan Avenue.