Traffic
Strasbourg hunts down illegal parkers with scanning cars
A scanning car checks whether parking fees have been paid for parked cars. photo
© Michael Evers/dpa
Parking can sometimes be really expensive in the Alsace metropolis. Now the control is being expanded. Is the use of scanning cars a pattern for Germany?
Strasbourg was initially hesitant. But now, like in other French cities, there are also specially equipped ones taking turns Cars through some neighborhoods to scan license plates on parked cars. Regional media have already warned that nothing escapes the “Voitures radars” (“radar cars”) with the cameras on the roof.
Since drivers enter the license plate number when parking for a fee, it is possible to quickly compare whether the car is parked correctly or not. Some in the city with its picturesque half-timbered houses are already talking about ticketing on an industrial scale.
Are scanning cars also coming to Germany?
At least the Hamburg transport authority is striving for the use of these cars to be permitted nationwide. “In order to actually be able to drive the scan cars, there is no change in road traffic law,” explained authority spokesman Dennis Krämer when asked in the Hanseatic city. A decision at the federal level is necessary.
Strasbourg has symbolic character, is the seat of the EU Parliament and is located directly on the border with Germany. In addition to French, English, Spanish and German can also be heard on the street and in shops. The scanning cars from the private company Streeteo are also able to capture German and other foreign license plates, as the town hall assured upon request.
Many locals know the somewhat puzzling abbreviation “FPS” (“Forfait post-stationnement”), but others might want to remember it. It’s about the fine for excessive parking time. The standard tariff is 35 euros. An afternoon stroll in the shadow of the cathedral can quickly become expensive.
Parking control is not entirely left to the scanning cars, as the Alsace metropolis confirmed. Streeteo employees will then go to the site to determine whether there is actually a violation.
The topic divides opinion
Parking fees have already been increased significantly in the eastern French municipality with a European flair. Tourists are sometimes surprised that they have to shell out 35 euros for three hours of regular parking on a city center street. Parking garages and parking spaces outside the city center are generally cheaper.
There will be real work for the supervisors in June, when the area of paid parking is expanded to the large Neudorf district to the south. There will be 6,500 parking spaces there alone, as the daily newspaper “Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace” calculated.
The topic divides opinion, as can be seen from the comments section of a city website. There are residents who strongly reject the move as anti-social. Others, however, welcome him.
That’s behind the procedure
The green city government’s approach is primarily based on an environmental strategy: the town hall is concerned with improving the air quality of the metropolis in the Rhine Valley and relieving the burden of car traffic on residents in the center. The tram network is being expanded. Especially at major events such as the annual Christmas market, visitors from Germany are asked to please leave their cars outside the city center and take the tram.
In Germany, the planned change to road traffic law will, among other things, affect data protection, as the Hamburg authority spokesman reported. It must be possible to photograph license plates on the street. “It must also be possible to give your license plate number at the parking machine,” he added.
Pioneer Hamburg has already drawn up a draft law for the scanning cars in order to adapt federal law accordingly. This draft was assessed positively by the transnational committees. “Until a legal basis from the federal government is foreseeable, there will be no test drives with scan cars in Hamburg,” was the announcement from the Elbe.