I've just moved in Switzerland and last week I got my leasing car.
Since I'm still living in a temporary apartment in the city center so I got to observe what's happening to the white parking spots on the streeting.
If read the rule written on the Parkuhr machine correctly it says:
- between 7am ~ 7pm: maximum 2 hour parking at a time
- between 7pm ~ 7am: maximum 12 hour parking at a time
Well, but it is totally not the case, most of the cars are there well over 4 hours (i.e.: the parking meter showing 4:00). And in some not-so-rare cases, the car are there for several dayss straight.
Since this is the first time in my life to be using those parking meter, I'm wondering are those behaviors acceptable ? concious ? planned ? and what's the motivation behind, because I heard that fine can be really extreme here in Switzerland.
The rules of white space can change from street to street. At some place it might be limited to 1h, in others to 4h. Also does the meter show 4:00 or -4:00 ? The latter would be an overdue time (one is only allowed to feed the parking meter once, a second-payment would be illegal)
I am not sure if the meter shows a time if it was paid through a parking mobile app such as ParkingPay.
Finally there are parking cards for residents of the quarter and for trades person which do not have to feed the meter and can park unlimited.