Motorists in the UK may be looking at £70 fines for parking on footpaths, writes Brian Byrne.
The Department of Transport there is considering the move as part of a campaign to leave pavements clear for pedestrians.
Currently, the British Highway Code expressly forbids parking 'partially or wholly' on footpaths in London, but there is no legislation against it elsewhere in the UK.
However, if a motorist does park on the footpath in areas outside London, 'it must not cause an obstruction', according to the Highway Code.
In Ireland, it is prohibited to park 'on a footway, a grass margin or a median strip', according to the Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking) Regulations, 1997.
While we moan about parking charges here, a survey has found that London has the highest monthly parking costs of any city in the world, writes Trish Whelan. That's according to research from ParkatmyHouse.com - the world's largest online parking marketplace - who found that motorists in the UK's capital city are shelling out £709.00 a month to park in the city centre. The company is backed by the venture capital arm of BMW.
Bankers, financiers and those working in the centre of the City and travelling by car pay an average of £23,60 a day for parking.
London is by no means alone with its sky high charges. The Swiss city of Zurich ranked second on the list of most expensive cities with typical costs of £558.86 equivalent a month, followed closely by Tokyo with average monthly parking costs of £492.85, and
Hong Kong at £472,86 a month.
In start contrast, the world's cheapest city to park in is Jakarta, costing the meagre sum of just £0.54 per day equivalent.
ParkatmyHouse.com lets motorists use homes, churches or private businesses who are letting out parking spaces to earn extra cash but which can't be spotted when driving around. The space can be booked in advance and paid for via desktop, a mobile phone or tablet. The company claims its spaces are typically less than half the price of parking meters and the company has now more than 350,000 users worldwide.
Dublin didn't feature in the top ten list. We haven't heard of such an arrangement here, but perhaps it is already in place.
The complete list was London, Zurich, Toyko, Hong Kong, Rome, Geneva, Sydney, Perth, Oslo and Melbourne, in that order.
Dublin's Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn presented the city's first on-street Car Club licence to GoCar's Colm Brady yesterday, writes Trish Whelan.
This means that Dublin City Council's 30,000 pay-and-display car parking spaces can be used by Car Clubs for the first time. This will allow people use a car in the city centre without the hassle of paying for parking or driving a personal car into town.
GoCar is a members' only car sharing service that allows members to rent cars and vans by the hour. The vehicles are located at convenient locations around Dublin and Cork. GoCar is charged by the hour and kilometer. The hourly rate between 8am - 8pm is €4.99 and €2.49 between 8pm - 8am. GoCar charge 45c per kilometer and €40 for a 24hr reservation.
There is a one-off joining fee of €50 which includes €15 GoCar credit, and there is a monthly administration fee of €5. GoCar insure the vehicles, pay the road tax, insurance and cover all fuel costs. You access the vehicle with your swipe card and enter your pin number to release the keys and drive off. To book a GoCar and to check availability, see www.gocar.ie
There are over 700 members and 44 Go Bases in Dublin, with five in Cork.
The 31 new GoBases, now active, are located across Dublin city like the IFSC, Hanover Quay, Talbot Street, Mount Street Lower, Drumcondra, Rathgar, Raheny and Milltown.
Pictured above are Colm Brady, Managing Director of GoCar and Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn.
Members using Dublin's GoCar car sharing scheme will from tomorrow be able to park in the city's 30,000 pay-and-display parking spaces time, without having to buy parking tickets, writes Trish Whelan.
GoCar will operate the first on-street Car Club under new Dublin City Council bye-laws from 1st August.
GoCar which was set up two years ago and operates a number of Ford and SEAT cars, will be given the first Car Club parking licence by Dublin's Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn on the Forecourt of the Mansion House at 11am tomorrow morning. There will also be a 'how-to-use' demonstration.
To join the club, go to www.gocar.ie/sign-up/ and follow the instructions.
A new parking payment scheme in Dublin city centre will use an electronic parking tag which can be topped up in the same way as a 'pay as you go' mobile phone.
The system will also give the user an option of being reminded of time up by an SMS message, and they can also use their mobile phone to add extra time.
The system can be used in any public parking space. It leaves the existing ticket machine system in place for those who don't use the tags.
It will be launched tomorrow by the city's Lord Mayor Eibhlin Byrne.
