Arguing about parking in Split and alternatives

Today, let’s talk a little about the topic of complaining about parking, that is, the lack of parking spaces in Split. More and more people in Split are complaining about too few parking spaces and the abolition of illegal parking spaces because they don’t have a parking space tomorrow, and the City recommends using public city transportation.

So let’s go:

• The people of Split complain about the lack of parking spaces and the government, which, instead of fulfilling their wishes and building parking spaces, takes them away. Be careful, the government takes their illegal parking spaces. What a crime. Here are some examples of (former) illegal parking lots:
  • Blatine – the day before yesterday, parking was canceled on the sidewalk where cars were literally driving and it was a great danger to passers-by,
  • Legal right
  • Gripe
• Mate complains that he can no longer normally go to Konzum or Lidl to buy bread in the morning because there is no parking space on the way back. Mother doesn’t want to use her legs.
  • Why is it so difficult to walk to a store that is not right next to your house? If you don’t feel like walking and there is no JGP (public city transport), buy an electric mobility scooter or a bicycle. When it’s empty, you just fill it up at home, it’s not a big deal.
• Households of four or five people can even have 2-3 cars each. The father and mother use their cars to go to work, and the unemployed son that’s it. Mate will not vote for Puljko in the next elections because he is taking away their (illegal!) parking space and because the members of the household can no longer park anywhere normally.
  • I will repeat the same for JGP and romobiles/bicycles. If father and mother go to work in the morning and nowhere else, JGP is enough for them. If it’s raining, JGP is just as good, except that it will probably get a little more wet due to the longer walk from/to the station. Quite simply, a car is not needed if you can reach a certain distance by bus and if you are going to a popular place near which the parking lot will probably be full. Of course, I don’t count on disabled people here, as well as if you go shopping.
  • The son will use the car to go to college, socializing and the like, and for this purpose the bus can normally be used. The parking spaces inside City Centra One, Joker, Kampus and the center are often full, and a good number of buses go to these places. And another bad habit is when, as part of joint activities, everyone goes in their own car, instead of at least gathering in one if there are four or less of them.

In addition, Puljak himself 2 years ago he declared that people shouldn’t buy cars if they can’t park them. And that’s what any normal person will tell you. People are expected to show at least some minimal understanding of these things if they want to protest – here protested because of Kaufland’s decision to charge for parking, they demanded the cancellation of that decision because those poor people don’t have a parking space. I repeat, they protested against the decision of a private company. Did any of the protesters come up with the idea to turn to the City to try to agree something with Kaufland and have the City subsidize their seats, no matter how bad that idea seems to some? A private company is there to make money from something, not to take care of the needs of users.

I recommend you take a look at The interviewer’s announcement in which it is stated how many minutes it takes to walk to some places (from Blatin) and the availability of JGP.

I see that there is a similar situation in Zagreb, but since I don’t know Zagreb well enough, I won’t comment on how they could create/regulate parking, but at least I can comment on that culture non-culture.

One would say – use public transport. We have modern buses with air conditioning, ticket never cheaper. However, we have a slightly bigger problem here – there are almost daily deviations from the timetable due to lack of drivers who are on sick leave. And on sick leave, a good number of them drive for Uber, Bolt or they rob tourists when summer comes (Split) because they earn more there than in a city company. There are also complaints that the routes of the lines are not very good and that it is not possible to get from one point to some part of the city by bus without changing at least 1-2 times. Currently, the problem in Split is the lack of bicycle paths (some roads like Poljička, those in Dom. rata and Vukovarska are simply too dangerous for driving a mobile phone or bicycle, but well, at least there are bicycle paths there), and it should also be said that Split is not flat. Like Zagreb, it is relatively easy to ride a non-electric bicycle everywhere. Now some will say how come they didn’t put more bike lanes, but the problem is that roads and sidewalks are too narrow (according to Babić, the head of the utility). And it is worth mentioning that it is Split is literally the record holder in the use of public bicycles.

Even if public transport functions flawlessly, i.e. Promet Split and ZET drive frequently and respect the timetable, and even if modern air-conditioned buses run on all lines, there is still one small problem – people do not want to ride buses (and trams in Zagreb). because they think it’s only for the poor, they want to be seen with their Audi or Mercedes, and tomorrow they’ll waste a hell of a lot of time looking for parking – it doesn’t matter, it’s important that they have an expensive pet and that it can be seen.

It is a problem for such people to pay €1 for a ticket (or €0.53 in Zagreb), but it is definitely not a problem to pay 8 times more for Uber or a couple of times more for fuel.

Both Puljko and Tomašević will continue to complain, however, neither of them will successfully solve these problems if people do not decide to change, until they realize that their car does not have to be in the living room and that they have legs. The same is true of waste sorting. Everyone raises their hands when asked who wants change, but almost no one raises their hands when asked who wants to change.