I. Metshin: “With the introduction of the municipal parking facility center of the city got free”

(Kazan City KZN.RU, October 26, Adelia Galeeva). The development of the system of paid municipal parking will continue in Kazan. This is required by Kazan entrepreneurs and the current traffic situation. It should be understood that if set of effective measures won’t be taken, the city will soon return to the traffic jams and congested streets with cars parked in several rows. This was stated by the Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin at the traditional stuff meeting, which summarized the results of the work of the parking from 1 April this year.

The Mayor recalled that initially not all citizens reacted positively to the introduction of paid parking on the main streets of the city, adding that any changes are often perceived with hostility. "The decision to establish paid parking was not easy for us, we studied the best practices of our colleagues. Today we can say that in Kazan boorish behavior of individual car owners who left the cars in the central streets at second and third rows has sunk into oblivion. Today it's ordered, the center is free”, - Ilsur Metshin noted the positive outcome of the project.

The chairman of the Committee on Urban Transport Aydar Abdulhakov told about the results of the work of parking. He reminded that Kazan became the second city in Russia after Moscow, where street parking works in full, using administrative controls. Today 43,475 users are registered at the portal "Kazan parking" and 1315 car lots are available in the municipal parking. "The average load of parking lots is 50% and on the streets Kavi Nadzhmi, Profsoyoznaya, Professor Nuzhin it is 95-100%," - said the chairman of the relevant committee. At the same time where parking demand, additional space is created.

"The average duration of the parking session in October reached 57 minutes, whereas at the beginning of the project it was at a level of 1 hour 24 minutes. This suggests an increase in turnover of parking spaces by almost 1.5 times. Drivers plan the duration of their parking more carefully and try to keep within the paid time, "- said A.Abdulhakov.

Chairman of the Transport Committee also recalled that in the case of non-payment of parking in accordance with the Administrative Code of the Republic of Tatarstan the driver gets the fine of 2,500 rubles. According to him, since the beginning of the work of municipal parking decrees on more than 17 million rubles were issued, of which fines amounting to almost 2.5 million rubles were paid. As A.Abdulhakov told, profits go to the city budget and are used for the financing of the organization and to ensure road safety, as well as improving public transport services.

In the near future paid municipal parking area will be expanded. Initially, the decision of the Executive Committee provided a ban on stopping and parking of 74 streets of city center, but taking into account the financial capacity of the city signs were installed only on 52 streets. By December 25, signs will appear at another 17 streets - as it was written in the document. Also the issue of creation of new parking lots for about 600 cars on the streets Gogol, Bolshaya Krasnaya, Mayakovsky and others is studied. In the future the extension of the parking space within the Small Kazan ring is provided in three times in 2020.

"We will continue to work on improving traffic, in particular, will expand the paid parking zone - this is required by many entrepreneurs:  on certain streets we will introduce paid parking instead of prohibition signs," - said the Mayor.

The Mayor also noted that such measures are dictated by the traffic situation and the growth of motorization of the population. "From the beginning we said that the parking are not the way to make money, and above all are a necessary measure to limit the number of cars in the city center. If this issue is not engaged systematically and daily, if we do not take a set of effective measures, we can return to the congestion and traffic jams ", - I. Metshin cautioned. In conclusion, he requested to strengthen interagency cooperation and to collect unpaid fines from the violators.