Last July, Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon (who is also in charge of the Planning Administration) signed an order bringing into force new national parking standards that dramatically reduce the number of parking spaces close to public transport routes, especially in offices and commercial buildings.
For example, under the new regulations, an office building in Area A, 300 meters or less from the light rail line, will be allowed only one parking spot per 240 square meters of main built area, which compares with one parking spot per 40 square meters previously, reducing the number of parking spaces allowed by a factor of six. Start to get used to using public transport.
As far as residential areas are concerned, for private houses in Areas A and B close to future rail lines the parking standard will be changed to one-two parking spaces per housing unit instead of two. For an apartment in a multi-occupancy building, the allocation will be 0.5-1 spaces in Area A and up to 1.5 spaces in Area B. This is instead of one parking space per apartment for apartments up to 120 square meters in area, and 1.25 spaces for larger apartments.
The new standards give greater discretion to local planning committees, which will be allowed to set a different number of parking spaces from the number provided for in the local outline plan, either more or fewer.
Even before new buildings with fewer parking spaces are constructed in urban centers, the plight of drivers is already severe, which perhaps will persuade some of them to switch to other transport solutions. A survey by Promote Parking Systems Ltd., which provides automated parking solutions, indicates a sharp rise in the amount of time it takes to find a parking spot in Israeli cities in the past few years.
The survey examined the time taken to search for a parking spot and to park a vehicle in residential areas, commercial areas, and high-tech office buildings in the main cities, at three times of day: morning (7am-9am); midday (12pm-2pm); and evening (7pm-9pm). The survey tracked 513 drivers for several normal working days in 2012, and in the past few months.
In all the places surveyed, a double-digit increase was recorded in the time taken to find a space and park a vehicle. On average, the increase in the time taken was 43%. As might be expected, in commercial areas and around high-tech offices the difficulty in finding parking is mainly in the morning and at midday, while in residential areas the peak parking search times are of course at midday and in the evening.
In Tel Aviv, the worst distress is in central residential areas, where it takes more than half-an-hour to find a parking spot during evening hours. During morning hours, it takes an average of 29 minutes to find a space and park a vehicle in the main commercial and office areas of Tel Aviv (Ha'arba'a Street, King George Street, Ramat Hahayal).
In other sample figures from the survey, finding a parking spot in residential areas in the morning in Givatayim took an average of 13 minutes in 2016, compared with 8 minutes in 2012; in Jerusalem it took 20 minutes compared with 16 minutes; and in Haifa 9 minutes compared with 5 minutes. In the evening, the figures are 23 minutes in Givatayim in 2016, compared with 16 minutes in 2012; 28 minutes in Jerusalem, compared with 21 minutes; and 17 minutes in Haifa, compared with 13 minutes.
In commercial and office areas, the average time to find a parking spot in the morning in Givatayim was 17 minutes in 2016, compared with 13 minutes in 2012. In the evening in Givatayim, the average time rose by all of 133%, to seven minutes in 2016 from 3 minutes in 2012. The 2016 morning figure for Jerusalem was 24 minutes, compared with 18 minutes in 2012; and in Haifa it was 17 minutes in 2016, compared with 12 minutes in 2012.
Efi Magen of Promote Parking says, "The figures already prefigure an apocalypse. In 2020, people in Israel's main cities will still not want to give up their private vehicles, since there is no realistic, feasible alternative allowing them to leave their cars at home, and the parking problem will only keep getting worse."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 30, 2017
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