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Apart from decreasing parking fees from March, Skopje City Hall has no solution for parking space problem

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The number of cars on the streets of the capital of North Macedonia is spiraling up and, consequently, so is the lack of parking spots. People from different parts of Skopje are complaining every day that they are cruising for 10 minutes before they can find a free parking spot, and this problem is most evident in the central municipalities of Centar and Karposh. The City Hall of Skopje has decided to lower the parking fees for the parking lots managed by Public Enterprise “Gradski parking” from the 1st of March.

However, the city authorities are silent about the start of the project “Park and Ride” like those that had been functioning for decades in Western European cities. This project had been included in the Sustainable Transport Plan for Skopje in 2011. It envisages construction of big parking lots at all entrances to the city. There people arriving from other cities would park their cars and would continue their transportation riding in a bus from the public transportation system or rented bicycles all the way up to the center of Skopje.

These transportation terminals ought to release the pressure from the vehicles seeking parking spots in the central area in Skopje, but also to relieve the traffic jams in the capital of North Macedonia. Meta.mk has been waiting for a reply from the City Hall of Skopje and the PE Gradski parking for over half a month to the query whether they are planning to start the project “Park and Ride” in Skopje this year.

The only reply we received from PE Gradski parking was on the 10th of February, when they informed us that they have forwarded our questions to the City Hall of Skopje as the only institution responsible for the projects we have interest for. On the other hand, we have been contacting the City Hall of Skopje with the identical questions since the 1st of February.

Apart from the questions about “Park and Ride” project, Meta.mk asked when can the citizens expect the implementation of the zone parking on the territory of the municipality of Karposh i.e. Karposh 1 and Karposh 2 city quarts. The problem with the lack of parking spots in these parts of Skopje is alarming, because both the citizens and the companies who have something to do in Debar Maalo, are parking their vehicles in Karposh to avoid paying for the parking.

We weren’t given answers about the introduction of zone parking system in Karposh, but the city authorities also didn’t reply whether they plan measures to solve the chaos with the parking on Vodno Mountain during the weekends and the holidays. Part of the people are parking their cars along the road and are blocking the movement of pedestrians and the public transportation between Lower and Middle Vodno and between Middle Vodno and Nerezi.

The problem with the parking in Skopje is increasing year by year, together with the rise of the number of registered vehicles in the city, but also the increase in the number of people from the neighboring towns, who instead of using a train or bus, are using cars to reach their destinations.

For a longer period, Meta.mk has been writing that the problem with the lack of parking spots isn’t decreasing, but is steadily growing.

According to the PE Gradski parking information stated in their annual report for 2020, they had 9.396 parking spots, such as in the multi-storey parking garages, zone parking, and closed public parking spots. Contrary to this, the number of issued free parking permits for local residents in 2020 was 124.724 i.e. the number of free permits for parking was 13 times higher compared to the number of parking spots available.

Apart from the local residents, the PE Gradski parking marked parking spots are used by company vehicles and vehicles of employees of companies that are gravitating around the parking lots, including people who are leaving their vehicles for several hours during the day at one location.

Otherwise, according to official information by the State Statistical Office, in 2020, for the first time in the history of Skopje, there were over 150.000 registered cars and these numbers are continuously on the rise. For instance, , in 2012 around 122.00 cars with Skopje plates traversed the streets, while in 2020 the number rose to 155.000 cars. In a period of 8 years every day, over 33.000 additional cars are seeking a free parking space throughout Skopje.

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