When can local governments charge for parking?

• The proper marking of paid parking spaces still gives rise to interpretation disputes.
• Users of public roads are obliged to pay fees for parking motor vehicles on public roads in paid parking zones, i.e. in the so-called "regular" paid parking zone and the city centre paid parking zone.
• Not the entire area of ​​the paid parking zone is a place where fees may be charged for parking motor vehicles.

A group of MPs has submitted an interpellation asking whether the Ministry of Infrastructure maintains the interpretation of the 2016 regulations that a parking fee may only be charged when parking takes place in a paid parking zone, in a designated and marked place with simultaneous horizontal and vertical markings?

The MPs explain that doubts arise every year about the correctness of charging the fee. Therefore, they ask on what basis can local governments charge for parking in the paid parking zone? They also want to know whether local governments can charge for parking in the paid parking zone without placing both horizontal and vertical signs in the zone itself, e.g. no D-18 sign (parking with the note "paid")?

Stanisław Bukowiec, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, explains in response that, in accordance with the applicable regulations, users of public roads are obliged to pay fees for parking motor vehicles on public roads in paid parking zones, i.e. in the so-called "regular" paid parking zone and the city centre paid parking zone.

It should be clearly stated that the fee for parking motor vehicles on public roads in paid parking zones is collected only for parking in a designated place. Thus, the obligation to pay this fee is related to parking the vehicle in a properly designated place

- adds Bukowiec.

As he explains, charging for parking in every place, within the boundaries of the designated parking zone, would have the opposite effect to that intended. It would mean de facto approval for behaviors using public roads that are inconsistent with road traffic law.

In the opinion of the Ministry of Infrastructure, establishing a paid parking zone and marking it with the D-44 sign "paid parking zone or downtown paid parking zone" is not tantamount to designating paid parking places.

"Not the entire area of ​​the paid parking zone is a place where fees can be charged for parking motor vehicles. The obligation to pay the fee is related to parking the vehicle in a designated place," Bukowiec clarifies.

It also explains that the regulations do not definitively oblige to place the word "paid" on the D-18 sign. However, parking spaces in paid parking zones, where parking is subject to a fee, should be designated using vertical and horizontal markings.

The justification for charging a road user a fee for parking in locations without horizontal markings therefore requires proving that the vehicle was left in a paid parking zone in a separate car park within which structurally designated parking spaces were provided.

- argues the deputy minister.

As he writes - by allowing the abandonment of the use of horizontal markings, the legislator ordered the structural determination of parking spaces, and not only the marking out of the area of ​​the paid parking zone intended for leaving vehicles.

This "structural determination of positions" is intended to replace horizontal signs, which - apart from increasing the safety of road users and other people on the road and improving vehicle traffic and facilitating road use - are also intended to ensure maximum use of designated parking spaces.

"To sum up, for the obligation to pay a parking fee in a paid parking zone (the consequence of non-payment of which is the obligation to pay an additional fee), it is not sufficient to place the D-44 sign "paid parking zone or downtown paid parking zone", but it is also necessary to designate parking spaces," we read in the response.