The car is king, but for how much longer?

Fresh out the gym, Idrees Mohammed swaggers into Bagel Mania with the sort of confidence only a man in his early twenties can possess. When the woman behind the counter declines to give her opinion on the proposed parking control zone (PCZ),  Mohammed is more than happy to step up, much to his wingman’s delight. 

“You step out your house and you have to pay for parking, especially in Shawlands where you stay, it’s not the fucking town. Am I right? I’m pissed off,” he proclaims, bouncing around the shop. With Mohammed now piping up, the lady making bagels now can’t help but give her piece. “Ye’r no guaranteed that you’re gonnae get a spot, ye might pay a fortune,” she shouts from behind the plexiglass. 

“I’ll fucking park on the zigzags. I don’t care. I’m not paying for this shit. I’d rather pay the fine,” Mohammed swiftly replies. His pal bursts into laughter, urging him on. “How the fuck do they want me to walk to the gym? I can’t walk to the gym if they’re not putting enough grit on the floor, right?” Mohammed adds. “It’s just a money making scheme,” Bagel Mania’s Liz Collins adds. 

When pressed, it turns out he lives on Deanston Drive, all of two minutes’ walk from PureGym. So when the pavements aren’t icy, why doesn’t he just walk? “I can’t park my car on Deanston Drive. Because in order to park on Deanston Drive for your car to be safe, you need to park on the kerb, right? And if you park on the kerb, you get a fine.” But I get the feeling Mohammed would be driving his car to the gym no matter where his car is parked.

Council business often passes by unnoticed by most of the population. But its new parking proposals have definitely got the city talking. The plan is to take the model of parking controls used in the West End and city centre, and roll them out across much of the Southside, as well as Sighthill, Broomhill, Thornwood, Dennistoun, the Barras and the Gorbals. Residents will have to pay £80–£220 for a permit, depending on how polluting their vehicle is, and fees will be higher for second or third vehicles. Business permits will cost £1,050 a year, while pay and display will clock in at £1.20 every 15 minutes or £14.50 for a maximum stay of three hours. 

But — perhaps taking the logic that if you’re going to upset people it’s better to do it all in one go — the council has also announced plans for a city-wide 20mph speed limit (though many main or arterial roads will be excluded). In addition, the city aims to reduce car vehicle kilometers by 30% by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2030. The goal of all this? To create “Liveable Neighbourhoods” where services are accessible locally on foot or by bike, shifting from private cars to walking, cycling, and public transport. 

This isn’t, by any stretch, the first time the council and a group of residents have ended up in a war of words over parking. Back in 1965, parking meters were introduced to the city centre. A Daily Record article at the time read that “[Protests] have been made from traders that it was affecting their week-end trade. Motoring organisations have added their complaints”. But were the protestors right then? Were they right when they objected to new measures in the West End in the noughties? And — crucially — are they right now?