| The Moscow City Duma wants to ban parking in courtyards The capital's authorities are going to present the capital's car owners with a tough choice: everyone who has not yet acquired a garage or parking space to store their four-wheeled friend will have to either sell it or buy the above-mentioned real estate. Those who dare to violate this “sell or buy” principle will face serious penalties and the prospect of losing their movable property. The cynicism of the situation is aggravated by the fact that the authorities do not particularly hide the fact that such a decision is made in the interests of private companies involved in the construction of parking lots and the disposal of dilapidated cars that litter yards.
Yesterday, deputies of the Moscow City Duma passed in the second reading the scandalous bill on parking, which has introduced a total ban on “placing vehicles outside parking lots” in Moscow since 2007. At the same time, the head of the transport department of the city hall, Pavel Zlatin, who actively advocated for the speedy approval of the law, does not hide the fact that for 3 million registered cars in Moscow today there are only about 1 million parking spaces. Moreover, speaking to the capital's deputies, the official admitted that by 2007 the Moscow government will be able to provide parking for only 47% of the capital's vehicles.
At the same time, of course, the authors of the bill did not forget to include penalties for those for whom there simply are not enough parking spaces. If this document is finally approved by the Moscow City Duma, the owner of a car left outside the parking lot for more than five minutes, even in the courtyard of his own house, where there is no special marking, will be punished with a fine of 10 minimum wages. True, making excuses to journalists, Mr. Zlatin swore that penalties would begin to be applied only after parking was provided to all Moscow motorists. But one of his subordinates, head of the transport department Igor Chursin, later admitted that such leverage over car owners as a fine was simply necessary for the mayor’s office to increase demand for expensive garages and parking lots. “Moscow does not and will not have money for the construction of parking lots and garages from the city budget; for this it is necessary to attract investors, and investors need guarantees,” Mr. Chursin frankly stated in a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent.
Despite the frank cynicism of this approach to solving the city’s transport problems, one cannot but agree with the last statement. It is really unprofitable for the city to build parking lots, and private developers are not confident that all the built parking spaces costing from 10 to 30 thousand dollars can be quickly sold. Therefore, office centers often appear in the center on land plots allocated for parking, and even in residential areas, investors are not too concerned about where new residents will keep their cars.
However, the main developer of the bill, Yuri Babenko, who also happens to be the head of the private company Ekotekhmash, which is engaged in the removal and recycling of old cars, rejected all accusations of lobbying the interests of construction companies. According to him, the bill is designed to clear Moscow yards of auto junk and protect the rights of Muscovites as pedestrians, making their lives more comfortable. In a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, Mr. Babenko clarified that the Moscow bill regulates the placement of cars only in courtyard areas. On public roads, federal legislation applies, according to which the fine for illegal parking is only 0.5 of the minimum wage. Thus, Yuri Babenko, in the same cynical vein as his colleagues, made it clear that “nothing prevents the car owner from removing his car from the yard, from the lawn or sidewalk and parking it on the street,” where the fine is lower.
Mr. Babenko already used a similar argument during the discussion of the bill by the Moscow City Duma in the first reading. However, yesterday this advice sounded quite defiant. The fact is that the next item on the agenda of the capital’s parliament was the consideration of a legislative initiative to amend the Administrative Code of Russia. After a short discussion, Moscow deputies proposed to their colleagues from the State Duma to increase from the current 50 rubles. up to 25 minimum wages fines for illegal parking already “on the street”, and also allow the evacuation of not only those cars that actually interfere with traffic, but also those left on the road or sidewalk in violation of traffic rules. Alexander GUDKOV |
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