Warsaw. Complaint against new parking meters and intervention of the Ombudsman

In response to residents' complaints to new parking meters, the Ombudsman wrote to the Municipal Roads Board. It is about the inability to pay for cash in the paid parking zone.

The RPOs are received from Warsaw residents on new parking meters, which do not allow a cash stop fee. It's about devices mounted in Mokotów, covered by the paid parking zone since February 2024.

Unequal treatment of drivers

According to the RPO, the equipment of a new area of ​​the Warsaw Paid Parking Zone with non -cash parking meters results in uneven treatment of some drivers, because there are people who do not have access or are unable to use modern forms of payment.

That is why the RPO office asked the Municipal Road Administration in Warsaw for a position on this matter.

According to the applicants, this deprives drivers who do not have a payment card or access to the mobile payment system, the possibility of using this area of ​​the paid parking zone in Warsaw. They indicate that the decision of ZDM to install such parking meters leads to social exclusion of people who do not use modern forms of payment.

See: More applications for paying parking, you can also extend the stop.

The spokesman shares these reservations. “All zone users have an equal position. They have the right to park the vehicle on public roads in the zone, provided that the fee is paid,” the RPO noted.

He explained that since, according to the Public Roads Act for stopping the vehicle in the paid parking zone, you must pay a fee, then you need to create a system for paying them so that every zone user has the actual possibility of paying it.

The recipes are talking about it

“And although the majority of society currently has access to modern forms of payment, it is a group of people who do not have such payment instruments, e.g. due to the fact that they cannot use them (older people)” – he added.

The Act on the National Bank of Poland specifies that the monetary marks issued by the NBP are legal means of payment in the area of ​​the Republic of Poland. This means the obligation to accept them in exchange for all benefits – public and private.

“Recognition of monetary marks emitted by the NBP as a legal means of payment is unconditional in the sense that this provision (or no other legal provision) limits the ability of individual marks in the field of release from liabilities,” said the RPO.

Therefore, the director of the Administrative and Economic Law Team BRPO Piotr Mierzejewski asks the director of the Municipal Road Administration in Warsaw Łukasz Puchalski to examine the case, refer to arguments and present the position.

ZDM spokesman Jakub Dybalski confirmed that the RPO letter had been received.

– Indeed, we have a request for a position on this matter and we will prepare such a position – he said.

See: Nearly PLN 62 million from parking fines.