A new parking garage in Eindhoven does not seem to be catching on in the city. The garage on the outskirts of the city opened six months ago and cost more than twenty million euros, but hardly anyone parks their car there.
The five-storey parking garage with 164 parking spaces should help make the center of Eindhoven more car-free. But the new transferium does not seem to really catch on for the time being and, according to Broadcasting Brabant virtually unused.
The numbers don’t lie either. In the past six months, an average of 25 people used the garage per day. This resulted in an average of only 100 euros per day for the municipality. It costs the municipality 300,000 euros annually to keep the parking garage open, more than 800 euros per day.
Money wasted or not?
“Throwing money into the well”, says councilor Dré Rennenberg of the Elderly Appeal. “It was an ill-considered plan. We should have waited years with this garage, until the center was completely car-free,” he tells Omroep Brabant.
Linda Hofman of the CDA is also disappointed, but she also sees opportunities. “We are very disappointed, but it is certainly not money wasted. Look at Den Bosch, such a transferium also works there. We need to advertise this garage more.”
LPF councilor Tjerk Langman agrees with her. “The policy of the municipality is to discourage the use of cars in the center. Then a parking garage like this one on the edge of the city should simply be there. You simply need these parking spaces, otherwise you will have a real problem later on.” .”
‘Parking garage built for the future’
According to responsible alderman Monique List, the void is mainly the fault of corona. “We have no events, the sports clubs have few visitors, people are asked to work from home and the center has had relatively few shoppers,” she explains.
Isn’t it a waste of money? Absolutely not, says the alderman. “This parking garage has been built for the future. We are going to build more and more in the center and give more space to greenery. So that means there will be less parking in the future.”
Eindhoven wants to ban all cars and trucks that run on fossil fuels within the ring road in less than ten years. Only electric or hydrogen-powered means of transport are then still welcome. This parking garage should help with that. The alderman wants to promote the garage more in the coming period. You can park there for free until 9 January.
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