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How high can parking fees be? To answer this question, price monitor Stefan Meierhans has made new calculations.
For example, Meierhans determined the land costs, production costs and management costs of a parking lot. Short- and long-term parkers should bear part of these costs. But how much is too much?
“In my view, you shouldn’t make a profit with fees,” says Meierhans. “My new model shows that such high fees cannot be justified given the costs. That’s why I think cities should lower prices.”
According to the price monitor’s new cost model, annual subscriptions of over 400 francs are generally too high for long-term parkers, regardless of whether these fees are charged in a small town or in an expensive and large city like Zurich. Blue or white zone parking spaces are on public land that already belongs to the general public. For this reason alone they cannot be compared with the significantly more expensive private underground car park spaces.
Resident parking card holders are mostly people with smaller wallets.
Above all, however, too high fees for public parking spaces are antisocial, criticizes Meierhans. “The rich have their own garage or parking space. Resident parking card holders are mostly people who work shifts or have special jobs and have a smaller wallet,” he continues. Therefore, he strongly advises the authorities to reconsider their parking fees.
Meierhans does not rule out that he himself will approach cities with very high prices again. These cities include all those who charge more than 400 francs an annual fee for a long-term public parking space. For example, Lausanne with 500 francs, Bern with 492 francs and Winterthur with 710 francs. Zurich also wants to increase the fees from 300 to 540 francs.