Monday, June 15, 2009

No parking on the dance floor - in Tel Aviv

A few months ago I had a You Tube video up of Hitler complaining about the lack of parking in Tel Aviv. You Tube pulled the video citing copywrite infringements - (and rightly so) but just how bad is the lack of parking in Tel Aviv? Apparently, Tel Aviv needs approximately another 300,000 spaces to just meet the current daily needs of the city. Ynet News:

The growing parking crisis in Tel Aviv was backed up by official numbers Sunday, as a new report by the City's Enforcement Department revealed that the humming metropolitan is lacking a staggering 324,000 parking spots.

The report was commissioned by a new municipal committee tasked with trying to solve the issue. The report also stated that the shortage results in over 3,000 parking tickets a day, most of which are given between 5pm and 7 pm, in central Tel Aviv. According to the report, Tel Avivians own 152,000 vehicle, but incoming traffic sees more than 450,000 vehicles enter the city and compete for 278,000 parking spots – including those is regulated parking lots. Other data suggested that 83% of the parking tickets issued daily are given to non-residents.

Of course, the replacement revenue stream for the municipality in all probability could never be effectively replaced if additional parking spaces were found - so there probably no relief in sight for the near future.

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