The mobility fund was established by the city in March 2022. “It will be used by the town hall to pay, for example, the construction of new parking spaces, bike paths, bus stops and other investments to increase traffic safety,” the city management said at the time, half a year before the municipal elections.
At the time, the ODS also had its representatives at the town hall, which supported the idea of returning money from fines and parking fees to improve parking options.
“But now the town hall is building cycle paths, reconstructing local roads, repairing bus stops. Its statute allows this, but it only concerns points 3, 4 and 5. Point 1 is that we are setting it up so that the collected money can be transparently used to improve parking conditions in the city. That’s not happening,” criticized Jan Holpuch (in the local council as a member of the Spolu coalition) on behalf of the Citizen Democrats.
He also mentioned studies on the construction of parking garages in Hodolany and at the exhibition center paid for from the budget instead of from the fund.
“It’s absurd. Since the fund was established, not a single parking space has been developed from it. No one is planning any this year either,” said the representative and recalled the council’s program statement. It says that “funds from the parking fee will be used to expand and improve the quality of parking.”
Holpuch is also bothered by the promotion of new paid parking zones in the wider center, the launch of which was planned for this spring, but in the end the city postponed it because it wants to perfect the system.
“The advertising and communication campaign cost over 800 thousand crowns and informed about something that did not happen. When the system was in such a bad state, they should have told each other before starting the campaign and not started anything. It just caused confusion in people,” added Holpuch.
Mobility is not just parking, says the coalition
The city management argues that there are too many cars in the city and that simply adding parking spaces is not enough.
“The whole parking policy is not just about building ten, one hundred or five hundred parking spaces somewhere. Moreover, their construction is a controversial topic for many residents. Voices are being heard that the new parking spaces will not help the solution of congested Olomouc from the point of view of static traffic. The problem is that there are too many cars, not a lack of parking spaces,” responded Mayor Miroslav Žbánek (ANO).
After all, it was already stated in the draft parking policy four years ago that Olomouc has 24,000 legal public parking spaces where 22,000 vehicles park. However, they are not where drivers need them.
“The fact that we have included in the parking policy the costs of operating the parking system and everything related to that, including, for example, the promotion of the entire parking policy, is absolutely fine in my opinion. In a political fight, it is very simplified,” said the mayor.
“We are continuously adjusting the traffic regime where we know that we are not able to ‘fish out’ the neighborhoods around the center in a stabilized development, for example in the future zone C. There is no space if we do not want to destroy the greenery and asphalt the parking spaces there or build concrete parking buildings.” he added that Olomouc, like other cities, is just following a natural trend.
The fund is already paying fines from new radars
Last year, the fund accumulated over 61 million crowns, at the end of the year the balance of the bank account was 40 million. This year, revenues of 101 million and expenses of over 41 million are expected, while the town hall wants to use the money “mainly for the operation and development of the paid parking zone”, according to the report on the management of the fund for 2023.
The estimates also take into account revenue from speeding fines launched in January. Since the beginning of the year, they have been in the sharp square and in the home for the elderly in Chválkovice and on the stretch of Chomoutov. They recorded 1,416 cases in the first month, 1,073 in February.
“Radars are proving to work as a preventative measure, and we hope that the scanning vehicle for parking enforcement will work as well. Our goal is not to collect as much money as possible from fines, but to ensure that traffic in the city is smooth and, above all, safe,” said Deputy Mayor Tomáš Pejpek (ProOlomouc and Pirates).
Another radar has been monitoring the speed in Přerovská street since April, and in the summer it should also be added in Okružní and later in Jižní.
The parking lot is guarded by a specially equipped car
The fund is already filled by a specially modified vehicle that monitors parking violations. An electric car equipped with cameras and software automatically processes suspected violations.
The driver of the route in zones A and B in the city center always passes twice every quarter of an hour in the so-called detection and confirmation phase. In the second round, cars with unpaid tolls are already recorded in the system.
“Once the ride is over, the data goes through a validation process at the city police. After this action, all information goes to the relevant administrative body for further resolution,” explained the director of the Olomouc city police, Pavel Skalický.
However, according to Ivan Rašťák, head of the department of the drivers’ and motor vehicles’ agenda, officials deal only with individual cases. “We only deal with small things, especially when comparing the data with the analog parking cards that have been valid until now. But their validity will expire at the end of August, so even these difficulties should disappear,” said Rašťák.
2024-04-18 02:54:00