Guyana already has parking meters

Jun 28, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Why are people saying that parking meters are being introduced in Georgetown? Georgetown already has parking meters.
Georgetown has human parking meters. If you park outside of New Thriving on Main Street, you can bet that when you exit the restaurant, there will be some person standing near to your car waiting for a tip. The person will claim, if questioned, to have been keeping an eye on your vehicle.
These human parking meters only seem to keep an eye when everything is in order. But when somebody steals your mirrors, these human parking meters suddenly are never around or they concoct some excuse as to why they did not notice who stole the mirrors.
These human parking meters are nuisances. They are persistent in begging for money. Persons concede to their requests just to avoid the harassment.
I do not know what will become of these small-time hustlers when the real parking meters are established. They will be made redundant. They will be put on the breadline, just like some of the vendors at Stabroek Square.
We do not need mechanized parking meters. We have the best parking meters in Guyana. We have human parking meters. We have parking meters which not only charges you a fee but who can offer to wash your vehicle for you while you are away from your vehicle. In fact, we have a special brand of human parking meters. You do not have to ask them to wash your vehicle. They do so without being asked and then charge you for it.
Why is the City Council rushing into a private contract with a foreign firm for parking meters? Why not implement the system themselves? Why not have human parking meters, employed by the council. Why not implement a labour intensive system of parking meters?
Why not learn from the experience of the existing human parking meters? Why not employ persons to collect parking fees, under a controlled system, as is still done in many parts of the world.
Why not expand the Constabulary and do what was done before the advent of mechanized parking meters? Why move to mechanized system which will only give you 20% when you can gain as much as 90% under another type of system?
There are no parking meters for the container fees that the Council proposes to collect. But it will collect these fees when the time comes without having to use a mechanized parking meter.
The Council has said that the contract that has been signed for parking meters will allow for the employment of young people. Why instead of a foreign firm employing these young people, does the City Council not employ them to collect parking fees under a system run by the Council?
The City Council does not need parking meters. There are many parts of the world where persons go around and issue parking tickets for persons who violate parking laws. These same persons can bill you for parking if you do not pay a parking fee.
There is no mention so far about consumer protection under the new system to be implemented. A parking meter system is a regulated system. It allows for challenges to parking fees. This requires legislation.
Guyana should not be implementing a system of parking fees without a regulatory framework protecting the rights to commuters and drivers. If someone believes that he or she has been unfairly billed for parking, how does that person challenge the billing?
Parking meters should have been a last resort. They should have been implemented only after other means to regulate traffic were tried.
Private parking lots should have been encouraged before the movement to parking meters. The City Council should have offered incentives to persons with open properties to establish such lots so as to ease the problems with traffic in the city.
What happens now, if someone wants to use land that he or she owns to open private parking to compete with the parking meters? Will City Council allow this to happen given that it will compete with the private company which will be operating the parking meters? Is there a specific clause in the contract signed which obligates the Council to refuse permission to private persons interested in erecting parking lots around the city?
Will City Council be willing now to grant permission to private landowners to establish private parking lots to compete with the new company? And does such a policy, if it were to exist, not constitute a breach of economic freedom which unfortunately is not protected by Guyana’s Constitution?

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