Brussel hands out 180 000 hours of free parking tickets

A charm offensive by the city of Brussels toward merchants and shopping motorists. Indeed, the city of Brussels is going to distribute thousands of free parking tickets. This was announced by Alderman for Economic Affairs, Fabian Maingain (DEFI).

By doing so, he wants to support downtown merchants while encouraging “efficient mobility solutions”.

Guide motorists’ behavioral change

With the introduction of the capital’s new mobility and parking plans under the banner Good Move, off-street parking spaces have become the most convenient, quick, and safe gateway to the city center and shopping districts, Maingain says. Shopkeepers will offer free one-off tickets to encourage customers to opt for this solution.

“With this action, we want to support merchants who have been severely affected by successive crises, the decline in purchasing power, and competition from online commerce, and at the same time, guide motorists’ behavioral change by directing them to the various car parks in the city,” Maingain concludes.

‘Parking in Belgium too expensive’

As is its annual custom, Touring, the Belgian motorists’ interest group surveyed the parking policy in Flanders.

It shows that 65% of Flemings, as the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws writes, think parking is too expensive, up 10% from the previous survey. Touring also received 2 029 complaints last year about the rates and lack of clarity in parking policies in Flemish cities and municipalities, or 25% more than the previous year.

Eight in ten road users think that paid parking is mainly a way for cities and municipalities to generate income, and more than half believe that the blue zones, where parking discs are compulsory, are poorly signposted.

For your information: in the parking zones of parking.brussels, you pay €2 for the first hour, €5 for the second hour, and €8 for 3 hours. For 4 hours, you pay €11.

In the city center of Bruges, you can park for a maximum of four hours and pay 2 euros for the first hour and 3, 4, and 5 euros for the following hours, with a maximum of 14 euros.

The Netherlands is much more expensive

And what about the Netherlands? In The Hague, for example, you now pay a parking fee of 50 euros in some places, regardless of the length of stay. These high rates are part of the fight against cars driven by day trippers. But, for now, this is a test.

At 7,50 euros an hour, Amsterdam remains the most expensive place to park in the Netherlands, although Utrecht is also expensive at 6,64 euros.

Antwerp will also start forcing day trippers into underground parking garages or park-and-ride zones from August, leaving parking spaces for residents. From then on, parking in Antwerp’s historic city center will be mainly reserved for residents and permit holders.