Almaty citizens’ mentality hinders solution of parking problem in the city

Almaty citizens' mentality holds back resolution of parking problem and Almaty drivers neglect multilevel parking lots, Tengrinews.kz reports. Almaskhan Akhmetzhanov, deputy director of Architecture and City-planning Department, said this during the Development of parking strategy in Almaty city. International experience and local challenges workshop. The speaker cited the multilevel parking lot next to Almaty Central Market that had been working for several years as an example. The parking lot is half empty, because the people prefer parking their cars as close to the market as possible. Akhmetzhanov added that according to the Department’s data, night parking lots are the most developed lots in the city. Daytime parking lots that are situated next to office buildings, schools and universities are developed only by 10%. Parking lots for clients and visitors of administrative buildings, cultural sites and shopping malls are almost undeveloped. Akhmetzhanov added that a lot of investors had approached the Department with their proposals. Multilevel parking lots partially hidden underground could become one of the solutions of the problem. The spokesperson said that Almaty streets are wide enough to provide good traffic capacity, but the vehicles parked along roadsides usually reduce this capacity. William Brouwer, international expert of the City of Almaty Sustainable Transport Project said that well-developed infrastructure was required for development of the parking lots system. This system includes a lot of new road signs and a staff of parking supervisors equipped with pocket computers to issue fines. Brouwer added that two parking supervisors are enough to monitor one street, in the other words one employee could monitor 375 parking boxes. By Dmitry Khegay