The long-standing debate regarding the short-term parking spaces in Vienna has finally resulted in a new regulation that requires a universal Parkpickerl in all of Vienna. A Parkpickerl is a parking sticker that is required in many parking zones in Vienna, with which one can park as long as one wishes in the short-term parking zone of their district. The new regulation marks years of pressure from the Greens in the previous city government to enforce fee-based parking zones in the whole city.
On the 16th of June, the SPÖ Executive City Councillor for Innovation, Urban Planning and Mobility Ulli Sima announced the new regulation with the NEOS junior partner as well as other four SPÖ district leaders. This regulation will end the remaining free short-time parking zones in Florisdorf, Donaustadt, Liesing, Hietzing, and parts of Simmering. The new universal Parkpickerl will cover all the 23 districts of Vienna from Monday until Friday between 9:00 and 22:00. However, some exceptions are granted in lightly populated spaces, industrial as well as green and peripheral areas such as Donau-Auen and Biesamberg. As of March 2022, the Parkpickerl will cost €10 per month, excluding the administrative fees, and will only be granted to the residents of the city of Vienna according to their districts and not to the 200.000 who commute to Vienna with cars. The new regulation will also standardize the price of the Parkpickerl, which currently costs €10 in the city center and around €7.50 in the outer districts per month. The revenue from the Parkpickerl, which was estimated to be around €123 million as of 2019, will flow into the expansion of the public transport system, said Sima.
“It creates more space for people in the districts, less time spent looking for a parking space and better quality of life thanks to green spaces and trees, because we simply don’t need as much space for parked cars” said Ulli Sima in a statement. The new regulation was criticized by the opposition; the third president of the Vienna parliament (ÖVP) criticized the law and called it a “rip-off”. Vienna’s FPÖ leader Dominik Nepp was not thrilled either with the new regulation, calling it another way to “empty the pockets of the Viennese.” In response, the Greens stated that the new law is “better than nothing” and demanded smaller parking zones within the Viennese districts.
