On Thursday 25 May, Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mobility and Public Works, François Bausch presented a new national parking strategy for the Grand Duchy.
The national parking strategy is a series of concrete recommendations enabling municipalities and employers to fully play their role as mobility players by making targeted use of private and public spaces dedicated to parking.
According to the Ministry of Mobility and Public Works, the construction of parking spaces is expensive and consumes large areas. In 2021, Luxembourg had approximately 900,000 authorised parking spaces for cars, including 600,000 open spaces and 300,000 closed or underground spaces. Specifically, there are 271,000 parking spaces along roads, 325,000 open-air spaces away from roads, 205,000 underground spaces in buildings, 92.000 above-ground spaces in buildings, i.e. a total of 893,000 authorised car parking spaces.
Nevertheless, most car parks, either in public spaces or at the workplace, are made available at a low price, or even free-of-charge. This helps to encourage individual motorised transport, especially to get to/from work. The high number of long-term parking lots and a low occupancy rate show that parking is not managed efficiently in the Grand Duchy. Indeed, a single car parked in the public space for 6 hours prevents 24 motorists from parking there each for a quarter of an hour.
The ministry's press release stated that the vicious circle of parking illustrated in the National Mobility Plan (PNM 2035) is not only of national interest, but also of local interest. Given that the provisions relating to parking fall within the competence of the municipalities, they will be able, as a player in mobility, to have a significant positive impact not only on the choice of mode of transport at peak times, but also on the quality of stay in public spaces, the establishment of safe cycling facilities, the promotion of affordable housing and the availability of parking spaces.
Worksheets
The result of both international best practices and unprecedented data collection in the Grand Duchy, the strategy is presented in the form of a binder comprising ten worksheets which are intended to be updated over the years. The first sheet lists for the first time the inventory of parking in Luxembourg. The others deal with topics as varied as public parking management, parking keys, bicycle parking, P&R and carpool parking or equipping parking spaces with charging points.
Launch of the website www.parken.lu
The new website www.parken.lu allows the worksheets to be downloaded online. Municipalities will also be able to order paper versions from there, where the 10 work sheets are presented in a binder designed for this purpose. The objective is to facilitate access to information relevant to the national parking strategy, published in a first phase in German. The launch of the French version is planned for the end of 2023.
