Kiev Archives - Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

Parking Recommendations for Kiev, Lessons for All

January 28, 2016

How a city manages its parking has a huge influence on other facets of city life, from transit access to public spaces. In a recent study commissioned by USAID, ITDP and consultants SARECO and GIDE assessed Kiev’s on-street parking problem and recommended ways to improve the city’s parking management system. The overarching message is clear: although broad solutions (e.g. changes to the legal system to enable better enforcement, attracting an international parking operator) are unlikely in the short-term, there are many steps the city can take immediately to make the system start working better for users and the urban environment.

To start, the report recommends that Kiev focus on the basics. Improving information and planning will bring Kiev’s parking system closer to a modern scheme that improves access throughout the city and the supports the quality of public spaces. First, the city can clarify the rules of the paid parking system and clearly communicate them to the public. Good ways to inform the public how parking works include clearer signage, maps, leaflets, and a user-friendly website. In addition, clarifying the rules for how parking fees are collected and violations charged, as well as other reforms, would strengthen the parking authority’s standing, and help create a more effective system. A further recommendation is to update the paid parking zones to better align with current parking demands in the greater city. To stimulate turnover in on-street parking spaces, introduce limits for how long a car can stay parked in the central zone where short-term demand is greatest.

In some parts of Kiev, parking demand can be three times the official parking supply, leading to illegal parking. Physical barriers to protect pedestrian areas could prevent use of illegal spaces until laws for enforcing penalties are strengthened.

A full inventory of public parking supply should be conducted, and the data used for advanced mapping and planning. A clear understanding of the spaces available will support financial planning and accountability efforts by the city. To help keep vehicles in legal spaces, installing physical obstacles like bollards to block cars from pedestrian areas lets drivers know exactly where they can and cannot park, while also protecting those on foot. These steps will help any municipality improve the public’s understanding of how the parking management system functions.

With these improvements in place, Kiev will have a foundation for better transparency, enforcement, and administration. Faced with insufficient legal backing to enforce parking laws when they are broken or ignored (specifically non-payment at paid parking spaces), improving revenue collection from parking attendants is the best course to encourage drivers to pay for parking. The city should take steps to increase accountability and reduce the potential for corruption by rotating existing attendants to different streets. Changing out agents regularly and conducting annual audits of both the finances and physical assets (parking spaces) would help increase both the revenue and legitimacy of parking system’s rules.

Ultimately, these improvements will prepare Kiev for investments in a more robust, modern on-street parking system. In the future, amending local laws to allow revenue from parking to directly support public transit, rather than a general municipal budget, would secure funding for transport improvements. With a clear strategy and commitment to act, Kiev can begin to alleviate the major parking issues it and cities like it face. Once this happens, the city will start to reduce traffic conflicts, improve walkability, improve transit access, and increase the value of public space throughout the city.

Read the full report here, including an analysis of Kiev’s urban and parking history, current challenges, and recommendations for solutions.

All photos credit to Christophe Begon, Sareco

Technical Assistance for Parking Management Initiative in Kyiv

October 1, 2015

The Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) identified on-street parking mismanagement in Kyiv as a major issue for the city’s quality of life, public budget and overall transport functions. In response to KCSA’s request for assistance in parking reform, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) commissioned this assignment and appointed a team of consultants who analyzed the current parking environment and prepared this assessment paper with short-, medium- and long-term recommendations on how improve the payment infrastructure, operations and relevant legislation.

The short-term recommendations serve as action steps that the Kyiv municipality can take to improve the system within the next year to increase the prospect of finding an international investor. The seven (7) steps outlined in the paper form an action plan for improving the system now, including lobbing that can be done to pass the laws needed to enable enforcement.

USAID commissioned this report, and contracted SARECO (a Paris-based parking consultancy), in partnership with ITDP and GIDE (an international legal firm), to conduct this assessment.

Tackling Parking in Kiev, Ukraine

August 6, 2015

Parking in Kiev, Ukraine is visibly chaotic. Drivers park their cars everywhere—on the sidewalk, in crosswalks, in moving lanes, on playgrounds, in public plazas, on grass and seemingly wherever a surface space can be accessed. Though a municipal enterprise, known as KyivTransParkService (KTPS), oversees payments in officially sanctioned spaces, there is still rampant illegal parking, ineffective payment methods, and little enforcement.

The problem starts with numbers. With a population of 3.5 million, Kiev has approximately 1.5 million cars. These vehicles vie for only 25,000 regulated public parking spaces, of which only 6,500 are on the street. As a result, drivers fill whatever space they can find, causing obstructed sidewalks and overrun public plazas. Though the answer to Kiev’s parking problem will need to include a greater focus on public transit and non-motorized transport, it is clear that better management of existing infrastructure is needed. Even for the spaces that exist, the current system is broken.

An attendant waits to collect parking fees. Attendants monitor the most profitable streets, but enforcement remains weak.

An attendant waits to collect parking fees. Attendants work on the most profitable streets, but overall enforcement remains weak.

Attempts at reform are complicated by conflict in the region, and stakes are high for reform-minded officials in Kiev. After recent political tensions, elected officials are under pressure to deliver real change and improve the city’s image. Part of this challenge includes making the city more livable. The city is taking serious steps to reclaim its streets, including deploying a new municipal police force to improve enforcement of traffic and parking rules.

Kiev’s parking payment system is not working. Payment can be done at parking meters, to attendants with cash-machines, via mobile phone, or at payment terminals in convenience shops. The attendants accept cash and then print a receipt. In other cities, this type of fee collection has led to spillage of revenue. There is no doubt that the payment scheme in Kiev is leading to lost income for KTPS and the city, as the streets, particularly in the historic city center and core business district, are overrun with private cars. Official estimates assume that only 30% of drivers pay for parking.

Like many other cities in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Kiev was built around walking and public transit. People lived in communal apartments where entire families were raised in single-room occupancy conditions. In the 1950s new mid-rise developments began to be erected outside of city centers to give families more living space. At the time, these developments were connected to the city center with bus and trams. After the Soviet Union dissolved, so did public transit services—aside from the well functioning and superbly clean metro.

Many former mass transit connections are now made by mini-buses and private cars. After Ukraine declared independence in the 1990s, new developments with modern amenities continued to mushroom on the periphery, usually not linked to the provision of public transit. Today, the public transit catchment area does not reach most neighborhoods. As incomes grew, so did car ownership, leading to the current conflict between the number of cars and parking spaces.

ITDP is providing technical assistance to improve the on-street parking management situation in Kiev. A better parking management system will improve the city’s quality of life, revenue streams and overall transport functions—as has been the case in countless other cities that have taken on the challenge.

All photos credit to Christophe Begon, Sareco