The City of Cape Town urges motorists to abide by the on-street parking bay rules in the CBD. The City’s Transport Directorate has been monitoring the use of parking bays closely since 12 October 2020. The focus was, and will remain, on the illegal use of reserved bays, and those who exceeded the time limits. In October alone, the City issued nearly 700 fines for parking offences.
The fines were issued in the inner city, particularly in the vicinity of Long; Long-Market; Wale; Plein; Spin; Albertus; Riebeek and Waterkant Streets. With the introduction of Alert Level 1 of the National Lockdown, traffic within the CBD has increased and businesses desperately need public parking bays to be available throughout the day.
Despite the fines, the City has noticed that the illegal parking trend has not improved, unfortunately. It remains a serious concern. This can be attributed to the fact that more employees are returning to their workplaces within the inner-city and that commuters in general are having to spend longer hours within the Cape Town CBD.
‘While these are all signs of a city bouncing back from stricter lockdown levels, the City has to ensure that motorists adhere to the applicable by-laws, especially in areas where local businesses are heavily dependent on the turnover of the on-street parking bays for their customers.
‘As business within the CBD returns to normal and the traffic in the inner-city increases, we are appealing to all residents and visitors to abide by the parking rules and to not use the parking bays for longer than the allocated time, be it a 30 minute or 60 minute on-street parking bay time limit.
‘We have to consider how important the small businesses within the CBD are for our local economy, and for job creation. We need to ensure that we create a conducive environment for business to return to normal, and thrive. We ask that residents who need to spend several hours in the CBD to park where they used to park prior to the National Lockdown, be it at privately operated parking garages or the parking spaces on the edges of the CBD. I want to remind commuters that the MyCiTi buses also offer a reliable, safe and scheduled service to get around within the CBD and from more remote parking garages,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Transport, Alderman Felicity Purchase.
The City will continue to monitor vehicles for the specific time frame indicated on the parking signage. Road users exceeding the time limit will be issued with a fine of R300. All public on-street parking within the CBD has the correct signage in place, and the City will enforce this.
Parking wardens will keep on monitoring bays throughout the CBD during core business hours. The turnover of these essential on-street parking bays will be enforced by ensuring motorists are adhering to the time restrictions, and do not park in bays reserved for loading or drop-and-go, or use bays for those with special needs without a permit.
In an effort to increase viability, due to the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, and not wanting to further burden consumers with having to pay for parking, the implementation of paid parking has been delayed until further notice. The City is aiming to implement the new parking management contract in the first quarter of 2021.
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Issued by: Media Office, City of Cape Town
Media enquiries: Alderman Felicity Purchase, the City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Transport, Tel: 021 400 7197 or Cell: 083 629 0829, Email: felicity.purchase@capetown.gov.za (please always copy media.account@capetown.gov.za