CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years old!
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It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
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MOTORISTS are facing parking price hikes at the meter and outside their own homes as cash-strapped finance chiefs aim to squeeze an extra £2 million from Capital drivers over the next four years.
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http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/edinburgh-parking-permit-and-ticket-prices-rise-1-3093598
Yes, permits for gas guzzlers approx £450 pa - hard pushed motorists, cash strapped families etc etc!!
My permit is ~£80 (great value, in my opinion) so a 10% rise over 4 years doesnt sound that bad - usual EEN sensationalism.
Likewise, I've no problem with paying for a parking permit. My street used to be used as a free car park for the city centre until the peripheral zones were introduced. Used to be crazy every working day - a queue of out-of-town cars at the top of the street watching for residents leaving their house, and literally following you down the street hoping you were going to get into a car and free up a space for them. Not pleasant, and really not a safe zone for kids in the morning. Permits came in, problem went away.
While this year there seems to be more emphasis on the permit increase counteracting the proposed transport budget cut, in previous years they were claiming it was an environmental encouragement tax.
I do think it can form a part of wider incentives to reduce car use. The main problem with it is that it takes no account of whether you drive your car or not. For example, my own car basically just sits there Monday to Friday because as a family we do everything by bike during the week.
But the law of unintended consequences creeps in. Ironically, the cost of a permit for me is right on the borderline where it is almost more expensive to leave the car parked at home than it is to take it to work and park for free during the day. Don't worry, I won't. But there must be quite a few people in this situation?
CO2 band is already required to be supplied when renewing the permit. It would be easy to supply verified mileage also. If we want to reduce car use, perhaps there could be some sort of linkage of reduced mileage to reduced permit cost?
Tim Shallcross, from the Institute of Advanced Motorists, questioned what benefits drivers could expect for forking out on hiked-up parking prices.
"benefits"?
I'm assuming he wants a kerbside concierge service handing out umbrellas when it's raining and plush carpets to keep the immaculately clean soles of his shoes in the condition to which they are accustomed?
Oh for a councillor who would say "we are increasing the cost of parking in town because too many of you are driving into and parking in town and it's better for all if we did something about that"
You can expect the benefit of being able to park relatively close to your destination for quite a long time.
Or
You can expect the benefit of not paying for parking since the cost now exceeds the utility you gain from parking, at that price.
Economics: Market Forces: Lesson #14.
Snowy, I see what you are saying. Also, you get very good value out of your permit because you use it all the time to leave the car outside your house
Just noticed -
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We will have to wait and see the full details of the budget proposals as the impact becomes clear over the coming days. But if it is the case the frontline services are protected from the estimated £35 million of cutbacks then a few pence more at the parking meter may be the price we will have to pay.
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