Unfortunately, numbers are often placed in the room without any context – letters to the editor from Freiburg

It’s nice if city parking costs are finally discussed, but unfortunately various numbers – 120 €, 180 € or 360 € per year – are often put into the room without any context. This can easily give the impression that it is only a matter of finding new sources of income.

Drivers now seem to have to pay the general public. The opposite is true: Every parking lot costs the city a lot of money. In other words: the city indirectly subsidizes millions of euros a year for car traffic. The State Department of Transportation assumes that a user fee for urban parking of 150 euros per month should be considered covering the costs (guidelines for fixed traffic).

Even the higher demands are not exaggerated in the European comparison. For example, in Stockholm you pay 827 euros and in Amsterdam 535 euros a year for parking. Car sharing service providers also pay 420 euros per year per parking space.

And it’s about more than just income. Finally, it gives public space the value it deserves and creates an incentive to use private parking spaces or do without the car altogether. For example, while many complain about the shortage of parking spaces in Wiehre, I know of many cases where garages are used as storage rooms or a car is parked in front of the door in order to save a 200-meter walk from its parking lot. . After all, it costs almost nothing.

I think a resident parking permit for 365 euros would have a special charm: if the state offered a 365 euro ticket, as required by the SPD and the Greens, public transport and the car would be roughly “equal” and everyone could decide whether to go to put Your car in front of the door or take a bus or train for € 365. Julian Hilferich, Freiburg