After a seven-year hiatus, Kyiv municipal authorities are once again sending their fleet of tow trucks to where vehicles either block or obstruct other forms of traffic in a city that has been deprived of ample parking space and prudent transportation management.
The measure is part of
a new law on national police that took effect on Nov. 7 and which applies to
the whole country. Yet some believe that the reintroduction of towing alone
will do little to nothing to solve the problem of vehicle congestion in cities
such as Kyiv, where forward-looking urban management and planning has been
neglected. Although the consensus is that drivers should be encouraged to park
their cars outside urban centers and then take public transportation into town,
there’s still not enough space to accommodate vehicles in downtown areas for
those that need to be there, especially for district residents.
So far Kyiv
authorities towed 113 cars on Nov. 7-12, most of which were hauled away in the
overcrowded central districts of Shevchenkivsky and Perchersk, according to the
Kyiv patrol police press service. Only 2,901 paid parking spots exist in the
two high-density populated neighborhoods, the Kyiv City Administration says.
Kyiv has a total of
398 parking lots that can accommodate up to 17,660 cars, according to municipal transportation firm
Kyivtransparkservis, which oversees parking
areas in the city. The company is also in charge of towing cars in Ukraine’s capital
of nearly 3 million.
According to the new
legislation, the police can order a car to be towed and for that, a vehicle has
to be both parked in violation of traffic rules and be blocking the flow of traffic,
says lawyer
Bohdan Glyadyk of Bohdan Glyadyk and Partners law firm that specializes in vehicle
law.
Owners of towed cars must
pay at least Hr 1,119 (around $46) or more for the violation. This includes a Hr
255-510 fine for parking improperly, a Hr 720 towing fee and an additional Hr
144 for each day the car is kept in the tow lot.
Some
say this single-handed method will do more harm than good.
Rostyslav
Shaposhnikov, head of Road Control, a non-profit traffic watchdog, believes the
reintroduction of towing alone without providing more parking space will return
Ukrainian cities back into 2007-2008 when similar practices were in place and
were eventually scrapped in 2008 as illegal. Back then “towing made no
difference, apart from making drivers angry,” Shaposhnikov says.
“In
order to demand proper parking from drivers, the authorities need to first
provide sufficient parking space,” he says. “Since parking spaces have not
increased, that means cars will not disappear. I think there will be a war
between drivers and the police like it was back in 2007-2008.”
Parking
operator Kyivtransparkservis’s website says they are working on increasing parking
spaces in the city “because this helps to solve transportation problem and
alleviate the issue of traffic jams.”
The
major difference between the towing practices that existed seven years ago and
now is that in 2007–2008, the police could tow any car that was parked
improperly and now they are allowed to order towing only if those vehicles block
traffic or cause a threat to traffic safety, says lawyer Glyadyk. This is why
he expects the number of towed cars to be significantly fewer.
Kyiv
city authorities say the new police and municipal authorities are committed to using “towing
as a tool for deterrence, not enforcement”.
“Filling
impound lots and fighting with drivers about scratches isn’t our job,” says Kyiv city
administration adviser William
Schreiber.
This
is why local authorities in Kyiv started an information campaign, he says.
“Rather than towing offenders,
currently they receive a leaflet explaining why they were illegally parked,
where it is legal to park, and that next time they can be towed,” Schreiber says, adding that they’ve
already given out tens of thousands of them. “Another tactic, starting next
week, will be simply cruising tow trucks around in troubled areas to give
warnings and show we’re serious.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be
reached at [email protected]
