Antwerp city council approves controversial new parking policy

And what if the parking lots are full?

Antwerp takes a leap into the unknown. Between the Leien and Scheldt quays, non-Antwerp residents are no longer allowed to park in the street from 1 August. The operators of the pay car parks open the bottles of champagne, because they are getting rich while sleeping.

The term “car-free” should not be called the measures taken by ships of Mobility Koen Kennis (N-VA). “Car-free? Not in his life, not even for visitors!” Lennis shouts in ‘De Morgen’. Why is he so against it? “Because everyone is welcome in Antwerp, regardless of the means of transport. People who need the car need the car. People who want to get to the city of Antwerp by car are perfectly allowed to do so. But we are going to lead them a bit.”

You can safely call that an understatement. You will soon have to do a lot. Anyone who wants to have a bite to eat in a restaurant where there is no public parking in the area can walk off the pounds before and after. If there is a public car park in the area, then there is a good chance that you will also use it again, because it is quite possible that one car park after the other will indicate ‘full’ at the entrance. That is already the case. Well yes; ‘experts’ will have checked a few things.

The experts at Groen think the new measures are still too little. “It is certainly a step in the right direction, but the bad thing about it is that it is a compromise decision, so the effect will not be as great. Underground car parks are still accessible, you will still get car flows to the city center.”

Vooruit also wants to keep the car as far away from the center as possible. “We are convinced that you should keep the automobile visitor as far away from the city center as possible, but we don’t have a P+R culture and there are simply a lot of parking facilities close to the city center”, are the green words of the alderman for Social Affairs Tom Meeuws (Forward).

The traditional machines where you can pay for a parking space will disappear, and you will no longer be able to register your car as a visitor on parking apps. The cars of the Big Brother police will constantly drive around and catch bad offenders. According to the city council, the new parking policy will ensure that the heart of the city becomes more liveable.

Photo: screenshot WPS parking