Surprising news from Zurich. Freeing the streets was a good idea. But, reducing the number of paying parking places in Zurich city is a whole different thing. Open article from TA in German.
#Will people soon be living in Zurich parking garages?
Left-green initiatives in Zurich - The city will have full control over 14 parking garages – and will be asked to repurpose them
SP, Greens and AL are pushing through the municipalization of centrally located parking garages. And are calling for these to be converted into apartments or passageways.
05.02.2025 In Zurich, more and more offices are being converted into apartments. The same should be possible with parking garages in the future. This was decided by the SP, Greens and AL in the municipal council on Wednesday evening.
They passed a motion by the Greens with 61 votes to 56. Most of the 14 municipal parking garages are in the city center. There is an enormous shortage of space there, the motion states. The city council should therefore examine how the parking garages could be used in a more “sustainable” way, for example as apartments or district heating plants.
The city of Zurich can exert influence in a very lucrative location through the parking garages, said fellow postulant Luca Maggi. This opportunity should not be blocked by bans on thinking. A parking garage is not always the best solution.
The second postulant Martin Busekros called traffic the “problem child of urban climate policy”. This is another reason why the parking garages need to be converted. “It cannot be that in 2040 we will still be offering parking spaces for SUV drivers from the Gold Coast.”
The conservative parties and the GLP rejected the postulate. The parking garages are well used and urgently needed. They increase the attractiveness of the city center and bring economic added value. “Parking garages must remain parking garages,” said Anthony Goldstein (FDP).
On one hand, this reduces traffic in city center.
On the other hand, private parkings will have not competition and will be free to raise their prices after public parkings are gone. This will keep cars of lower income people out of city center. Maybe it’s not a bad idea. It’s not a war on cars, it’s a war on ugly cars.
Overall, a good thing. Switzerland has probably the best public transport system in the world and people mostly don’t need a car anyway. Whenever they do, for commute for example, they can always park in the outskirts of the city and use public transport to get to wherever they need.
I think I’ve gone with the car and parked in ZH city center once in 2024. If the parking price double or triples, but traffic goes down and it’s a nicer experience…I guess it’s worth the higher parking fee.
That’s quite an assumption to make. Are you saying that it’s people on low incomes who drive ugly cars?
If that’s the case I would beg to differ, I find plenty of high end cars to be seriously ugly.
Just for starters, there’s people who take pride in not taking care of the car aesthetics. From dirty exterior and unkempt interior, to another scratch on it won’t make a difference. It’s not savvy to spent money on how it looks, it’s a tool to move people from A to B, right?
So, just look at a 10 YO subcompact car ready for export, and a car which was always kept in an underground garage and properly maintained. Regardless of the aesthetics at KM 0, which is the ugly one? It’s not about design, it’s the rough and useful life it had while the owner laughs at car washes.
Me: Looks at splashed bodywork. Looks at (rainy) weather forecast. Puts off visit to car wash till the following weekend in the hope that it stays clean a bit longer for that price.
I’m somewhat in agreement with this initiative. But I am not completely in support of ‘business vehicle parking’. There needs to be a balance.
From personal experience, these blue zones are supposed to be ‘shared’ among local residents. The assumption here is that someone will use the vehicle every few days and the space gets rotated among the local residents.
However, in reality, what happens is that local ‘foreign’ residents (flak jacent and helmet on) get a blue zone local street permit and never ever move their vehicles - e.g. there is a avis rental from ukraine parked for over 1.5 years. the plates are not even valid any more. I approached and asked one of the local foot police giving out tickets and asked about this. The foot police told me that as long as they had the year-long permit, they could park in the blue zone and use it as their own personal storage spot.
There used to be lots of blue parking around my area, unless there was a concert or other event / public gathering nearby. Now, it’s a struggle to find a blue zone parking withing 300m of my apt.
Why? because I see license plates from ukraine, germany, poland other eastern european countries using the blue zones as their personal storage space. This is actually taking advantage and abusing the benefit… my simple humble thoughts …
if one needs to have a personal vehicle in city zurich, then appropriate arrangements should be made - be it in underground parking in the apt or in a parking garage near by. If one needs a temporary vehicle (say for the weekend), transport to the airport rental desk is just a short ride away. Mobility vehicles are not that far away either.
I am painfully aware that trekking to regular shopping centers in outskirts of zurich (Ikea area, for example) is challenging without a car, but there are also taxis … people should do the TCO of owning the vehicle (cost, insurance, parking, gas/elec, etc) and compare the convenience vs. the yearly cost. City zurich has gone to great lengths to make public transport convenient and seamless part of daily life…
Is the man-with-the-van still on this site, maybe? Been searching for him …
I don’t know why this is a problem. We used to have a blue zone permit and used a space full time. It was often parked there all week, sometimes less. The price and availability of a rented parking spot is often out of reach. It never once crossed my mind that the blue zone had “restrictions” for people who had a permit to park there. Anyone parking there without a permanent permit, i.e. just using the timer, would be moved on or ticketed by the parking attendants.
Parkings are only affordable if you are several (5) persons in the car. Then the parking will be cheaper than 5 RT bus tickets. If you are alone, public transportation is the best solution.