Now you can reserve parking by SMS or through the internet

DRIVERS IN the area covered by Nicosia Municipality will soon be able to reserve a parking-space in one of the capital’s public car-parks simply by sending a text message, or by logging on to a website.

Under a new system that is ready to be implemented in the near future, a driver will just have to send a text message with the area he/she wants to park in, together with the car registration number, to the four-digit number 2020 or 2030.

In return, he/she will immediately receive a text message containing the number of the parking space which will have been reserved for that particular car in one of the capital’s central public car-parks.

The cost of parking will be charged to the user’s mobile phone account, while the text message will cost no more than the mobile phone service provider’s usual charge. If the parking period needs to be extended, it will only take a second text message.

Nicosia Eleni Mavrou and senior municipality officials – including the head of the traffic wardens – were given a presentation yesterday by representatives of state telecoms provider Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA), which will operate the scheme.

Mavrou said: “Using the internet, before you even leave home you will be able to see where there is a free parking space, and then reserve it.”

The aim of the new parking scheme is to introduce some order into the chaos of finding parking in Nicosia. There will be the obvious benefit to a system user of not having to worry about having the right change while heading towards a reserved parking space, but this cannot guarantee that your parking space has not been occupied illegally by someone else before you reach it.

The good news is that the system will also make policing the car parks more efficient. The Municipality’s traffic wardens will be able to use hand-held devices to monitor electronically the use of all public car-parks, and so could verify in an instant whether or not a car has been parked legally.

The system has been completed and will go live once the municipality has organised its publicity campaign. The municipality is currently studying the possibility of reducing parking fees, and meanwhile is moving ahead with allocating code numbers to all public parking spaces.

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