Trial of fixed daily parking rate of 50 euros in The Hague and Scheveningen

Parking in Scheveningen or in the center of The Hague now costs 50 euros. Whether you park for ten minutes or a whole day, you always pay the fixed daily rate.

It is a trial of the municipality of The Hague, reports Broadcasting West. The intention is to encourage motorists to avoid (affordable) parking garages due to the high rate. This leaves space on the street for residents who want to park their cars.

As in any seaside resort, parking is often chaotic in Scheveningen. Especially on sunny days, it is sometimes literally a fight for the scarce parking spaces. The city center of The Hague is also often full. The residents are watching. “You can never park, you have to wait for someone to get in and drive away,” says Marieke de Jong of residents’ association Het Oude Centrum. “But you just want to park in your own neighborhood.”

The municipality has already taken several measures. On sunny days, traffic controllers tried to curb the disorder in Scheveningen. The hourly rate for parking there went up from 3.50 euros to 10 euros. Anyone who parked incorrectly almost immediately received a wheel clamp (almost 3000 were placed last year). But the problems did not end there.

Hence the new trial with a fixed daily rate, which will last for a year. To De Jong’s enthusiasm: “Only residents receive a street permit. So this plan is to distribute things more fairly.”

Less enthusiastic is Fleur Kruyt of a liquor store on the Lange Beestenmarkt in the center. “It doesn’t make doing business any easier,” she says. “If you leave here with a box of about ten kilos.”

Kruyt understands that inner cities are not built for the enormous traffic volume of today, but she would have liked to see a different solution. “If necessary, park for fifteen or twenty minutes. Then you give people the opportunity to enter a store quickly, without the risk that people park for a long time who have nothing to do there.”

The municipality of The Hague says it is aware of the criticism, but also points out that most residents and entrepreneurs have responded positively. In the meantime, progress is recorded and an evaluation follows at the end.