Cape Town - The City of Cape Town’s Transport Directorate has urged all residents to abide by the parking bay time restrictions in the CBD and to refrain from illegal parking.
With less commuters frequenting the CBD during lockdown, most people started parking close to their work places. The City said, however, that with the introduction of lockdown level 1, traffic within the CBD has increased.
As of October 12, the City’s Transport Enforcement unit will be monitoring the overstaying of allowable time permitted at on-street parking bays and the illegal use of exclusive-use bays for loading and for those that require a special permit.
“As business within the CBD returns to normal and the traffic in the inner-city increases, we are appealing to all residents and visitors to abide by the parking rules and to not use the parking bays for longer than the allocated time, be it a 30-minute or 60-minute on-street parking bay,” said Felicity Purchase, mayoral committee member for transport.
“We cannot allow commuters to use public parking bays all day long as it is now having an impact on the local businesses within the inner city whose customers simply cannot find parking in the area.”
She said local business owners are recovering from the impact of Covid-19 and they are also key job creators, which is why the private sector is pivotal to the recovery of our local economy and employment.
“Thus, I appeal to those who need all-day parking to make use of the parking spaces at the edge of the CBD or to rent parking in privately operated parking garages. The MyCiTi buses also offer a reliable, safe and scheduled service to get around the CBD and to and from these parking areas,” said Purchase.
Road users exceeding the time limit will be issued with a fine of R300. All public on-street parking within the CBD has the correct signage in place, and the City will enforce this.
The City said that it has allocated parking wardens who will be monitoring bays daily throughout the CBD during core business hours.
In order to ensure turnover of these essential on-street parking bays, the City will enforce the timing restrictions and all laws pertaining to illegal parking.
The main transgressions will be the overstaying of allowable time permitted by bays, and the illegal use of exclusive-use bays – for example, parking in drop-and-go bays; parking in bays for those with special needs without a permit, or parking in loading bays.
The City said that in an effort to increase viability, due to the impact of Covid-19, and not wanting to further burden consumers with having to pay for parking, the implementation of paid parking has been delayed until further notice.
The City is aiming to implement the new parking management contract in February 2021.
“In order to assist businesses in the CBD to revive and recover from the Covid-19 lockdown period, we need to ensure that their customers can find parking within the inner city to access the shops; restaurants; doctor’s rooms and offices of professional services based in the CBD.
“Our local economy needs all the support it can get and we all of us can play our part by abiding to the parking laws,” said Purchase.
Cape Argus