“The city of Linz has launched a digitization offensive and wants to set the tone – then you have to start small, and parking is part of that,” says VP club boss Elisabeth Manhal. She therefore urges the SP Vice Mayor Tina Blöchl, who is now responsible for this, to modernize the parking machines. Because at the moment, in addition to mobile phone parking, card payments are only possible at 100 out of 270, the rest you need change.
Since the Quick payment system was discontinued in July 2017, drivers in Linz have had to have coins with them when they want to park – or, as an alternative, a mobile phone parking account. As recently as 2020, 60 parking machines were equipped with the “Near Field Communication” (NFC) function, which enables cashless payment by means of an ATM or credit card, 40 will follow in 2021. The costs for this amounted to exactly 92,072.88 euros in 2020, in this case Year it was 61,381.92 euros.
36 machines can be converted
“The conversion of ten to 15 more machines is planned for 2022. A total of 36 parking machines can still be converted,” says SP Deputy Mayor Blöchl, who is responsible for parking space management. Around 70,000 euros are being invested in the modernization of these 36 machines. However, this means that 134 machines cannot be converted to card payment. “That is not acceptable. Linz has made a fundamental decision on digitization, then you have to live it”, demands Manhal.
In plain language: The 134 machines should be completely replaced, as Graz and Salzburg have already done. In Linz, that would cost around 1.2 million euros (excluding taxes), according to a query in the local council. “That is currently not included in the budget,” Blöchl gave a preliminary rejection of the demand, “from an economic point of view, an exchange only makes sense if the device in question is broken.”
4.5 million euros in revenue
Currently, around 250,000 euros have to be spent on the maintenance and servicing of the machines each year, while the additional costs for parking space surveillance amount to around 1.8 million euros. For comparison: The income from parking (vending machines and mobile phone parking) amounted to around 4.5 million euros last year, plus around 2.2 million euros from fines for parking offenders. This year the income should move at a comparable level. (fawn)
Source: Nachrichten
