Several consumers as well as members of our Committee have been calling upon us to make a statement about the proposed establishment of a system of parking meters in Georgetown.

We had so far refrained from making any statement on the issue because we did not have any detailed information about its operation.

We were, of course, fully acquainted with the various views on the issue which had been so vigorously ventilated in the press but these tended to be concerned with legal or statutory issues. In this offering, we shall confine ourselves to those issues of immediate concern to consumers.

The raison d’etre of parking meters is to prevent traffic congestion in downtown areas of cities where commercial and other business activities are transacted. It also establishes more orderly and fairer parking.

If such business activities do not take place in other areas, as for example residential areas, then there is no need for meters. Accordingly, before a parking meter scheme is implemented in Georgetown, maps should be issued showing the areas and streets which are to be metered.

GECOM had recently published a number of maps of the various areas of the City for the last Local Government Elections and these may be useful to the Parking Meter Company.

The City Council, or whatever Authority would be responsible for overseeing the scheme, would have to ensure that the meters are calibrated. This would ensure that the timing devices are accurate and also that old or second-hand castoffs are not installed in Georgetown.

The Committee checking on the calibration would include representatives from the National Bureau of Standards and the Police. Every year the accuracy of the meters has to be tested, preferably by the Bureau of Standards.

In installing the meters, care must be taken to ensure that the ingress and egress of householders and business places are not impeded. If this is not done at the outset, lawsuits of various kinds could result.

Bus terminals and bus stops should be exempt from metering, since if they were, this would result in daily chaos and confusion in such places as both bus operators and commuters could see no reason why buses should pay for providing a public service and why fares should be increased by the operators having to pass on the metered charges to them.

Taxis waiting in the taxi ranks should also be exempted and this would cause no problem since the established taxi ranks in the City are very few.

Around the hospitals and Law Courts should not be metered. People go to the hospitals to take a sick person for treatment or to take the discharge of a patient. They may even go to receive treatment for themselves. And the taxis which wait around the hospitals provide a very necessary service to the sick and their relatives who are mostly poorer folk who do not have cars.

Litigants and witnesses attending the Law Courts do not go there willingly, and at both the hospitals and Courts, waiting for lengthy periods is a norm. In similar vein, parking around the National Insurance offices should be exempt.

Sometimes cars, bikes and other vehicles have to be towed away from the meters for a number of reasons. If such has to be done, it is expected that the metering company has a safe and accessible station where such vehicles are kept.

And in towing away, care should be exercised not to damage the vehicle.

Most important, the parking fees charged cannot be exorbitant but must be affordable. So far, from what has been carried in the newspapers, the Company has arrived at its charges by computing its profits on the basis of cost of service plus 20% for City Hall.

The public’s interest has not been factored in this equation.
On the face of it, therefore, it seems the company is planning to make a profit of at least 40% to 50%; no company in Guyana makes that kind of profit margin. It would seem that a new formula for charges has to be worked out and this could be done by the Company, the M&TC, the Private Sector and the Ministry of Business.

These are some of the major concerns of the consumers. They can all be successfully addressed and allow the Company to make a fair profit and also the consumers to be more comfortable. Some of these requirements could be included in the Agreement between the Company and Mayor and City Council.