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Rao explained, “Today, parking Most Indian parking fee contracts
is either free, or in the control
of licensed unprofessional toll- are simply a matter of the city
collectors who have flat rates, renting out public space to private
because there is no clear policy for
regulating and charging for the contractors in return for allowing
use of street parking space. Low them to collect fees which is a
parking fees also have adverse
urban effects: over-utilization land-rent approach
of energy, violation of tenets of
transit-oriented development and
degradation of the environment.”
efficient and effective, there’s Parking Policies
At a micro-level, parking
metres should be installed along a need to mandate electronic Arvind Mayar spoke about
radio-frequency identification
street roads at all designated (RFID)-based tolling and boom- how several city governments
car-parking areas. These should are framing parking policy and
be set to charge demand-based lifting systems and integrate rules to reduce pressure and
flexible rates on an hourly car-parking with highway- congestion on roads and public
basis. So, in peak hours, the tolling so that the same tag spaces to make cities more
rates should be substantially works for both—and ideally, livable. Their challenge is to
higher than in lean hours. Stiff across the country. design parking rules that balance
penal provisions have to be V Ramesh pointed out that the need to provide parking with
in force to discourage illegal most of the off street parking efforts to reduce the overall
on-street parking. Further, attempted by different Indian demand for parking.
on-street parking should be cities are failing. The ‘Pay-and- Conventional parking policy
more expensive than off-street Park’ parking garages across aims to increase parking supply
parking. This is necessary to India are typically woefully infinitely by earmarking public
deter and discourage on-street under-used, while chaos land for parking, constructing
parking and also to incentivize continues in the nearby streets multi-level parking structures,
off-street parking and to where there is practically no and mandating all buildings to
promote the viability of privately- management or enforcement. have a minimum number of
managed parking. It is a familiar story around parking slots. The underlying

Need for Efficient the world, and the only way assumption is that the demand
to get better value from off-
Parking Technology street parking is to manage the for parking will continue to grow
with motorization, therefore,
To make car parks more on-street parking. adequate parking spaces will
have to be set aside to meet
this growing demand. But this
Given the pressures that increasingly parking policy has failed to
reduce parking pressure and
larger motor vehicles will exert on the the attendant problems of
crumbling road infrastructure, it is motorization, congestion and
pollution. Decades of experience
imperative for urban policy in India to be in India and across the world bear
guided by an outcome-oriented principle testimony to the fact that the
demand for parking is insatiable.
that reduces incentives for car ownership This results in land needed for
other crucial uses being diverted
to meet parking needs. Moreover,

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