Draft parking rules bold step in right direction
cles and not for stationary vehicles. However, by linking the fee for roadside parking to the duration of parking, the rules recognize that roadside parking would be alright only for short duration and not for long duration use.
A contentious issue would be the requirement that even for parking outside their homes people will have to pay. This too is appropriate as the space used is still public space. Often residential colonies are so choked with parked vehicles that it is difficult for any moving vehicle to drive through the already narrow lanes.
Imagine a situation where someone has to be rushed to a hospital at night and an ambulance is unable to enter the colony due to the right of way being blocked by parked vehicles. This warrants measures that dissuade people from using the roadside, where lanes are often occupied by very old cars that are not really being used. The hassles of disposing old cars encourage people to just leave them where they are.
However, a steep parking fee would push them into disposing such cars and freeing up space.
A big challenge will be in enforcing these rules. Once people get used to getting something for free, it is difficult to expect them to suddenly pay for it. Being such a large city, getting an adequately staffed enforcement team on the ground also may not be feasible. Perhaps an extensive deployment of technology to locate and penalize parking violations will be required. In this context, It would be desirable to have a preceding document that explains the rationale for the rules and persuades people about its necessity. By themselves, rules are threatening documents that direct people to do something or pay for it. As against this initiative to explain what is proposed to be done, and how it is useful for everyone, will go a long way in securing a constituency of support, and hopefully better compliance.