Life in Israel: Paid Parking chases the cars away

While the new paid parking situation throughout Bet Shemesh is a big mess and extremely disorganized, I already see the benefits, after just a few days.

Bet Shemesh has been planning the implementation of paid parking for months, but from the actual implementation you'd think they were trying to reinvent the wheel. They have released conflicting information about the available methods of payment. They have released conflicting information about when paid parking will start. They have released conflicting information on the availability of parking stubs. People have no idea if they have to start paying yet or not, and how they can pay if they do not have one of the parking apps on their phones.

Regardless of the balagan, which was not unexpected considering how disorganized and incompetent everyone knows they are, the idea in general is a good one, and I expect it to accomplish its goals.

Paid parking officially went into effect this week on Sunday (even though supposedly it is now a trial period and tickets are not yet being issued - I take no responsibility if you get a ticket because you failed to pay based on hearing there is some trial period in effect - there are conflicting reports about this, which is why I said "officially" and "supposedly").

Never before have I seen the parking lot in the shopping center of RBS A with so many empty parking spots available, especially on a Wednesday. And it was not just in RBS. I was in Migdal Hamayim, and there too the main strip had ample parking available.

I was happy to pay 55 agurot (yes, I paid, even though it might be a tiral period) to quickly find a parking spot, in close proximity to the businesses I needed to be at, and park for 7 minutes, rather than drive around the complex two or three times waiting to find someone pulling out of a spot at just the right moment as I approach.

I actually ran into two shops in RBS A and one in Migdal Hamayim today, and in all three places, all three times, there was ample parking available very close to where I needed to be.

I feel bad for the shopkeepers, if this indicates people are staying away from the shopping centers because of the need to pay and fear of getting a ticket. I suspect they will soon feel the decrease in business.

Sure, some of the available spots are from the car rental companies finding other spots further away for their fleets of cars, but I am sure that many of the spots are also from customers staying away.