New parking rules
From 30 September, the rules for parking will be amended once again. The City promises the upcoming changes will make the system less complicated. Shall we find out?
1) For visitors – “Blue lines aren’t walls”
“Blue lines aren’t walls” – that’s the City’s slogan. You can park anywhere, no need to be nervous about the blue marks on the ground. Newly, there are three zones, red (A) and green (B) and blue (C), as seen on the map. Only the areas with bold borders are regulated, the rest of the ‘blue’ city will be regulated from spring 2020.
As a visitor, you have to pay for parking in all three of them. The price differs, with the red one being the most expensive.
Apart from weekends and public holidays. You don’t have to pay anything on Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Also, you don’t have to pay if you park for less than 30 minutes in the city centre, and less than 60 minutes anywhere else.
But!
The city centre (red zone A) is still off-limits; the rules stay the same and you need a special permit to drive in. You can sort out the permit at the office at Zvonařka 5 – in case you’re moving flats have a wedding, or a different event.
The blue zone C is a strange one, too. You pay only for parking overnight, between 5 pm and till 6 am.
You can now pay either at the machines, by SMS or mobile application.
2) For residents
Residents park without paying, they just need to register their car, pay the registration fee (200 CZK for their first car, 8000 CZK for the second car) and then park anywhere in the area around their house, and in all the adjacent ones, too (apart from the city centre. You have to be a resident of the city centre to drive in without a special permit).
An area isn’t the same as a zone. Areas have numbers, zones have colours. See the map above.
To register a car as a resident, you need to:
- prove permanent residency or the ownership of real estate in the area (for EU citizens, a certificate of temporary residency is enough)
- Permanent residency is the official requirement. However, in practice, we have seen non-EU citizens being registered with only a temporary residency permit or a long-term residency permit (e.g. an employee card).
- prove some legal relationship to the car
- pay 200 CZK (if registering your first car).
You can read about the process in more details here.
Newly
You’ll have more visiting hours (200 hours for A,B zones; and 100 hours for zone C); and the possibility to purchase more.
You’ll have an online user account where you can assign the visiting hours, or change your car (4 times a year max, for 14 days maximum at a time; without giving any reason).
Even if you don’t live in any of the regulated residential areas but close to one, you can still register and park your car in the adjacent areas.
Be aware that even though the rules might not affect you directly, looking for a parking spot might get complicated anyway if you live in the neighbouring area to the zones: lots of people from the regulated areas will try to park on your street.
The Future
The City is planning for the regulated zones to spread. In spring 2020, more districts will be subjected to the regulation and you might have to register your car even though you live quite far away from the centre. Otherwise, you’d be considered a visitor and pay for overnight parking.
3) For subscribers
Subscribers are self-employed people or legal entities with registered address or their place of business within the area. The rules are very similar to residents. The fee for registering your first car is 4,000 CZK. You don’t have any visiting hours but you can purchase a ‘transferable’ authorisation.
You can learn more at the City’s website. It’s in English, although more details and FAQs can only be found on the Czech version. Or visit the Info office for parking at Zvonařka 5.
