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Parking in Paris, not

for the faint-hearted

Think of Parisian roads and you probablyhave an image of aggressive, fastdriving and parking anarchy - double,

even triple parking, cars parked at crazyangles, on pavements, down the middle ofthe road, and across zebra crossings. Andnose-to-tail, so that you have to shuntadjacent vehicles in order to get out. It iscertainly true that in the city centre, space isat a rea! prem:um; it can take almost as longto find a parking space as it does to eat ameal or see a film!

That is a driver's eye view. But how is thesystem run - and by whom? The Paris region(Ile-de-France) can be roughly equated insize with Greater London, while central Paris'proper' covers an area about seven miles by

administration, which gained increased trafficpowers earlier this year, has created an'urban mobility' plan, the aim of which is to cut

traffic by 5 per cent by restricting access fornon-Parisians. Rather than using tolls, as inLondon, the policy is to make parking cheapfor residents and expensive for others,including commuters. In practice, this means:controlling' traffic by standardising parking

fees; making underground car parksattractive; encouraging Parisians to park closeto home; and freeing public space forpedestrian use. This is balanced by the veryhigh subsidies to public transport and therequirement for employers to reimburse 50per cent of employee season ticket costs.

Current policy is biased in favour of

residents on the grounds that it is their cityand they should have freedom of movementwithin it. A feature of the policy is that non-residents are limited to two-hours' parking inthe city centre. High charges are re;nllydesigned to dissuade them from using theircars at all - especially for travel betweenhome and work (currently 59% of all journeysand BOOk of peak hour ones are by publictransport). In the suburbs there is a strongemphasis on inter-modal journeys, primarilythrough the provision of attractive park-and-ride facilities at stations.

On-street parkingSome 236,000 controlled on-street spaces(including 90,000 free ones) are available inthe city. Charges apply between 9am and7pm, with free parking virtually everywhere onSundays and public holidays (Saturdays andthe whole of August are also free of charge inmany streets). There are a further 400,000additional spaces in private garages and inthe courtyards of flats.The city is divided intothree charging zones. The basic hourly rate is

one euro (64p) and this is doubled for the

central area. The main business district has aspecial rate of E3 (:1.92) per hour while ratesfor car parks are roughly the same. Bycomparison, an Evening StcJndar:dsurvey ofcentral London car parks in April 2002, foundrates to vary from :2to 15 per hour.

Speciai arrangements exist for residentswithout garage space to park on the kerb-sidenear their homes, for up to 24 hours, at alower tariff of 50 cents (32p) per day for up toseven consecutive days. Payment can bemade on either a daily or a weekly basis.Spaces cannot, however, be guaranteed. Ondeclared high-pollution days, residential

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account for roughly 60% of total spaces. All

12,577 meters accept the Paris-Carte and

about a quarter, which are colour-coded,

take cash as well. The proportion with coin

slots has been cut partly to reduce the huge

losses sustained through theft from meters.

Managi ng loading and unload in g is animportant i ss ue i n a ci ty that is desperately

short of road space. The solution has been to

divide c ommercial vehicles into t hr ee

categories, acc ording to their surface area,

and to impose limitations by size. All vehicles

c an l oad and unload anywhere duri ng thenight, between 7.30pm and 7.30am. Smaller

lorries and vans under 16 metres are banned

from bus lanes and key trunk roads during

rush hours, while those up to 24 metr es alsoface a total loading ban during the evening

peak. Commercial vehicles above this sizeare prohibited from making deliveries during

day-time hour s. In many parts of the city,

dedicated delivery bay s hav e been markedout. However, there is a major problem with

the number of motoris ts who use these f or

overnight parking. A campaign t o police thebays more effectively has recently been put

in place.

Tourist coaches are an even biggerproblem. During the summer, there are an

estimated 1,400 coaches on Paris's roads at

anyone time. To cope with t his, the council

has provided 650 p arking bays However,c oaches mus t pay t o use most of the on-

street bays and underground car parks.

Coaches are ba nne d entirely fro m certainbusy areas. In others, the Highway Code sets

a maximum pic k-up and s et-down perio d of

15 minutes, during which engines must beswitched off.

Paris, along with Berlin, Brussels, Madridand Rome, is part of the EU's Capitals ITTS

(Integrated Travel and Tourism Services)

project which, among other things, provides

real-time availabilit y of par ki ng s paces andrecommended routings for coach drivers.

Underground car parksAlongside the policy of managed chargingfor on-street parking, there has been a major

effort to b uild accessible off-street sit es and

a requirement that new residential buildings

contain adequat e underground parking. Thecouncil's motto is "streets are not garages".

By moving parked cars underground and

out-of-sight, the city becomes visually moreattractive and public s paces are 'liberated'

for the use of pedestrians, cyclists an d public

transport users. Not only d oes this allow

residents to park their vehicles in secure

conditions, it also frees the streets from

illegal parkers making them safer and moreattractive. At present, t here are 122

underground car parks, providing 70,000

spaces.

Most of Paris's underground car parks are

run as concessions or on separate leases. Of

the 13 operators involved, VINCI Park and

SAEMES (a public-private partnership, with

51 % of the share s h eld by the municipality)are the largest. Both companies also operate

private car parks in Paris.VINCI Park is re-evaluating its role in the

Paris parking market, alt hough i t is s til l

competing for additional contract s and t he

renewal of existing ones. Much depends onthe new team at City Hall - but the feeling in

the c ompany s eems t o be t hat no further

underground municipal car parks wil l be built

and, as the largest player in the market, thereis little chanc e of gaining more contracts or

even of keeping all the present ones. The

company's current policy is, therefore, to

concentrate on the private sector, with an

emphasis on new c ar parks in upmarket

affi~. ~

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Both of the major c omp anies promote

themselves through the high quality of the

venues they control VINCI Park has a 10-point

customer charter. But circumstances can work

against the m ost perfect of promotions: on a

recent visit to one of VINCI Park's prime locationsin the Champs-Elysees, the burnt-out hulk of

what had once been a Renault Clio sat oozing oil

down the main driveway.

Parisian underground car parks have had a

terrible reputation for being gloomy, unsafe

places - an image encouraged by the French

cinema where they often feature in crime or

murder scenes. It is an expressed part of official

policy to rid them of this image. The Mayor's plan

to make car parks more attractive and

convenient ha s le d to the creation of a quality

charter s pec ifying strict standards forconstruction, operation and ambience. These

standards give a quality-guarantee to users:

competent, helpful staff, an attractive

environmen t a nd site-vetting on an annual basis.

The environmental requirements dictate

distinctive colours for each level, as well as anti-

dust paint for floors and the application of non-

skid surfaces. Lighting must be consistent and

eliminate eerie, dark corners.

Signage is also to be s tandardised in white

and orange, with green for pedestrian access

and blue for vehicle routes. Way-out signs must

be clearly lit a nd good quality public address

systems employed - good enough for music to

be played in pedestrian areas, such as in lifts

and ticket machines. Video surveillance of all

public areas is to be universal, with disabled-

accessible lifts that have intercoms linked

directly to on-site staff positions. Existing

facilities are required to progressively adopt allthese standards.

EnforcementParking tickets are issued by city-employed

wardens and fixed pen alty f ine s a re paid withfiscal stamp s ('timbre-amende'). These are

applied to a pre-addressed section of the ticketand posted to the authorities Anyone who

chooses not to pay (or, as many do, throws the

ticket away) faces an increased fine, which risesrapidly the longer it remains unpaid. The

approach taken after a presidential electiontends to undermine the system.

In te rn a ti o n a l r e v ie w : P a ri s

It has become a tradition that, following the

election, the new president announces a range

of motoring offences, committed prior to his

election, that will be wiped from the slate (see

page 21).

Bus lanes

The aspect of Delanoe's policy that causes mostconflict is probably the issue of bus lanes. In the

past, bus lanes were just that: a simple lane,

slightly wider than a bus, separated from the rest

of the carriageway by a white line. The n ew

policy is to have combined bus and cycle lanes

(wide enough for one to pass the other safely),

divided from the rest of the road by a concretebarrier.

The bus and cycle lanes are 14 feet (4 metres)

wide, although widths of up to 18 feet (5 metres)

have been tried. Motorist s are up in arms about

t he barriers, claiming that they are causing

chaos; while the new bus lanes are empty -

there are relatively few buses in Paris due to the

extensive Metro system - car drivers sit fuming

in massive traffic snarl-ups. When asked, a

transport department spokesman was unable to

justify the cur rent arr angements on trafficmanagement grounds, other than as an anti-

pollution measure that cuts journey times for

cycles, taxis and buses.

Present policy is to make better use of road

space (including the improvement of kerbside

discipline), extend bus lanes and introduce multi-

function parking cards compatible with the

Moneo electronic purse t o give c ard holders

more flexibility when choosing their mode of

travel .