Parking lot transformation: Starting Monday 1st December - payment by minutes instead of hours

Yesterday, 1st December, the "Parking Lot Law" came into effect. This requires that charging will be by the minute, not by the hour. Parking lots were required to prepare in advance, but some raised rates in an attempt to prevent losses.

The bill by MK Naama Lazimi (Democrats) and other MKs, was approved about a year ago in the second and third readings in the Knesset plenum.

The change in the law stipulates that the fee will be collected "according to the parking time, calculated in minutes," as opposed to the previous version, which allowed for collection "according to undefined time units." The purpose of the amendment is to prevent unnecessary collection from the public and to charge drivers only for the exact length of time spent in the parking lot. 

The new law will not apply to parking lots that have a global price - such as daily, weekly or event parking - to avoid harming consumers who use pre-set rates.

Despite the intention to reduce parking costs, many parking lots have used this as an opportunity to raise their prices.  According to an  investigation of eight parking lots in the central region by TheMarker, the average price per hour increased by 8 shekels. 

So what was intended to be a step in favor of consumers and fairness in payment, has actually become an opportunity for a massive price increase!

Parking lot owners expressed opposition to the new regulation during the Knesset debates, claiming that it could lead to problems on the ground. The Central Park parking lot company wrote in a position paper to the Economics Committee that "the situation could deteriorate into chaos and violence when leaving the parking lots, in an atmosphere that is already tense and impatient," and even warned of the effects on small parking lots that do not have advanced control systems.

During the year that has passed since the law was approved, parking lots were given a preparation period, and now the Ministry of Transportation and local authorities will be required to ensure that the law is indeed implemented.

Lazimi said that "this is an amendment that came to correct a distortion that harmed the Israeli consumer. There is no reason for us to pay for parking lots by the hour when we don't use them that way at all... This law was born from a public appeal... I am happy for the opportunity to correct an injustice and restore basic fairness to consumers."