Parking plans in high gear

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

The Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) will make another attempt to regulate vehicular parking in Kingston. Last week, Mayor Desmond McKenzie said the KSAC is currently in talks with an American company to install parking meters throughout the city.

McKenzie told Automotives that a team from his council is expected to visit Miami, Florida, for further discussions with the company which operates that city's parking system.

"The Jamaica consul general in Miami and the United States Chargé d'affaires here have been talking with this company which specialises in on-street parking, which is a cash-free situation," McKenzie said.

"We have already identified the areas that we will be using as a pilot project and this may start in the final quarter of next year," he added.

King Street in downtown Kingston and Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston, two bustling commercial areas with long-standing parking problems, have been earmarked for the pilot project.

McKenzie said a delegation from the American company (which he did not name) will travel to Kingston and conduct the test run. He could not say how much the installation of the system is likely to cost.

This is the latest attempt to address illegal parking in Kingston, a practice that has caused congestion in mainly commercial locations.

According to McKenzie, it is one of the KSAC's biggest challenges.

"Parking has become like a nightmare, people park just about anywhere they feel," he said. "The KSAC's wrecking team is having a serious problem keeping areas where parking is not permitted clear of hindrance."

In 2001, Derrick Kellier, then a state minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, announced that electronic parking meters would be placed throughout Kingston by the local company, Integrated Security Systems Limited.

Under that system, motorists would purchase tokens at outlets at a minimum of $25 for half-hour and maximum $50 for an hour. That project, which would have seen the KSAC taking 12 per cent of the earnings, never got off the ground.

Parking meters were first introduced by the KSAC in 1974. Because the meters contained money, they were targeted by thieves, resulting in high maintenance costs.

The vehicles of delinquent 'parkers' can be towed by the KSAC wrecker service. They can also be penalised with tickets by the police or KSAC traffic wardens.