The end of portable permits and benefits for electric cars. Prague is preparing to adjust parking zones

INThe City of Prague plans to adjust the operation of parking zones. Portable parking permits will be abolished, parking fees will be charged for visiting residents or benefits for electric cars will be abolished. The municipal coalition Spolu (ODS, TOP 09 and KDU-ČSL), Pirátů and STAN will now discuss the specific form of the changes. Deputy Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) said this on Wednesday. The zones first started operating in the 1990s and apply mainly in the center and the wider city center. Residents pay 1,200 crowns per year for an annual parking card.

“There was a debate with the city districts and now we have a debate within the municipal coalition. It is clearly written in the coalition program that we want to reform the parking system with the aim of calming down the center,” said Hřib. According to him, a concrete agreement on the form of changes in the coalition has not yet been reached.

The municipality discussed the changes with the city districts, which decide whether and where they will have zones on their territory. He collected suggestions from the town halls, with which he will now continue to work. “As part of the reform, we want to give them even more powers, because it’s really a topic for the local political representation,” said Hřib.

The city is now working on several proposed changes. One of them is the abolition of portable parking permits. “These are often abused to the point of speculation, one could say, and someone who is neither the town hall nor the municipality makes money from parking in public spaces,” said Hřib.

The conditions for parking electric cars in the zones will be adjusted. Electric cars will now be parked in places near the chargers, and their advantage, which allows them to park everywhere for free, should thus be cancelled. The proposal to cancel this benefit was already dropped in 2020, and free parking of electric cars in parking zones will end at the end of this year.

A new feature will be the introduction of a season ticket to the purple zones for the entire city. For one fee, the driver could then park in any purple zone in the city. “It is assumed that it would be graduated, when, for example, electric cars would have it cheaper,” said Hřib. There will also be the possibility of parking for visiting residents. According to Hřib, the city is also trying to unify visitor tariffs, because every part of the city now has it differently, which concerns, for example, parking on weekends.

It is not yet clear when the final draft of the changes will be ready. According to Hřib, once it is approved, it will be necessary to leave a period of about six months for their introduction.

Zones were first introduced in the capital city in their modern form in 1996 in the part of Prague 1, where efforts to regulate traffic appeared as early as 1982. They subsequently expanded and operate in Prague 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 , 8, 9, 10, 13, 16 and 22. The municipality collects around half a billion crowns annually from parking fees.