Paid parking goes to suburbs

Paying for parking has been part and parcel of Joburg for a long time. Now a new, more modern system is being rolled out.
PAID parking is gearing up to move beyond Joburg’s CBD and Braamfontein into other parts of the city in an attempt to ease congestion and create more available parking.

The City is gouing ahead with its plans (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)The City is going ahead with plans to introduce paid parking in suburbs (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)With this system, which began in Braamfontein in 2010, motorists will have to pay R8 an hour to park at the kerb side of roads. This can be done for a maximum of two hours.

The money must be paid to marshals, who will be carrying mobile parking machines. The receipts will then have to be displayed inside the car, usually by the windscreen.

Suburbs that will be part of the parking metering are Parkhurst, Rosebank, Roodepoort CBD, Sandton, Corlett Drive, Brixton, Emmarentia, Birnam, Melville, Florida, Norwood, Fordsburg, Parkview, Greenside, Craighall Park, Northcliff, Rivonia and Linden.

During a media briefing on 9 May, Gabu Tugwana, Joburg’s group communications director, pointed out that Johannesburg had always had a system of paid parking, especially around business nodes, using parking meters and meter wardens.

Modern
“Over a period, the city’s infrastructure became too costly to maintain because of vandalism, theft, change of currency and phasing out of coins, among other things. Thus this system was scrapped in favour of a more modern system that comes with added benefits,” he explained.

Benefits of the system include efficient use of parking facilities where traffic congestion exists; better use of available space; less congestion in areas close to business activity or areas where parking spots are always overcrowded; facilitation of free movement in public spaces; and reducing the risk of damage to vehicles that are either damaged by other motorists or broken into by criminals.

He said that for quite some time, there were no parking meters in Joburg and this had led to an increase in motorists hoarding parking spots for long hours, and in some cases, preventing businesses from receiving more motorists coming to support them.

“This has always been a concern for the City and hence the introduction of a managed paid meter system,” Tugwana said. “Most cities have a parking management system together with enforcement measures to ensure a fair, simple parking solution for motorists. Paid parking systems are a primary municipal management strategy for ensuring that traffic flow and reduction of parking problems.”

Paid parkingPaid parking will create more space for parking A well-managed parking system encouraged visitors to business nodes because of available parking space close to the places customers wished to visit.

Braamfontein
In Braamfontein, business owners have reported increased trade because of the availability of on-street parking space and better traffic flow.

He said: “The City’s revitalisation programme has also received positive response from business due to increased metro police presence, who are always on standby to support the parking marshals or wardens in the execution of their duty.”

In response to the public outcry regarding the paid parking system, Tugwana said: “Although legal obligations were met to establish this system, views of the public can still be taken into account even at this stage. Where possible these views will be integrated to our paid parking system.”

Positive feedback has come from the Rosebank community, which said it supported paid parking but wished to make further input into which areas should be included in the programme.

Tugwana stressed that the City would further engage with people to make the programme beneficial to all. “Working together with ward councillors, whose key responsibility is to keep residents informed with plans and developments of the City, more can be made to benefit all stakeholders.”

He concluded: “Paid parking will be rolled out to all business nodes as has been the case in previous years to ensure uniformity of traffic management in the city, as stated in our by-laws.”