Disc parking
Encyclopedia
Disc parking is a system of allowing time-restricted free parking
through display of a parking disc or clock disc showing the time at which the vehicle was parked. A patrolling parking attendant
can inspect the disc to check whether payment is owed. The system is common in Continental Europe
.
requiring parking disc, the parking disc is set and put on display behind the front windshield
. The disc has a thumb wheel (or knurling wheel) at the upper side that makes the clock face turn around its center point, allowing it to show different clock
times. The standard parking clock can show a full twelve hours, with additional marks for each half-hour. The time to be set is rounded up from the actual arrival time, for example a 10:00:01 arrival would be set to 10:30, while a 10:29:59 arrival would also be set to 10:30. The legal requirements are that "parking is allowed when the vehicle shows a parking disc that is easily readable from the outside and whose clockhand points to the mark of the half hour that follows the time of arrival".
The latest departure time is calculated from the displayed arrival time on the parking disc based on the indicated maximum parking time. For example, if the parking disc was set to 10:30 and the parking sign indicated a one hour maximum parking time, then free parking would end at 11:30. The system is intentionally set up in a way that only full and half hours are used to indicate arrival and departure. Arriving at 10:02 in a parking disc zone of one hour maximum parking time invokes a departure time of 11:30, and hence an effective time interval of eighty-eight minutes for free parking after arrival. In short, if the parking sign shows a limit of one hour maximum parking time, then the effective maximum parking time is sixty-one to ninety minutes because the difference to the next half hour is added.
shops, and many gift and card shops also sell parking discs. The cheap paper parking dics go for less than one Euro
. Big Europe
n car rental
companies such as Europcar
and Sixt
lend their vehicles equipped with a parking disc. These are commonly left in places such as the two side bags in the front doors and the inside of the cover of the car log book
.
Although the design and size of parking discs has been standardized there are often free giveaways with advertisements on the rear. Most parking discs are made of heavy paper
, but there is a common variant made of plastic
with sharp edges that can also be used as an ice scraper
. An illegal variation involves motorized clock discs that move the clock face in a timely manner. In general, clock discs must be set with the arrow pointing to a mark and not any of the white space between, or else it would be invalid and could result in a traffic ticket
. As disc parking is common in Europe, virtually all cars there have some kind of parking disc.
Within Europe only the United Kingdom
and Denmark
have a disabled persons parking scheme
where a parking disc is required in certain circumstances. The UK administration offers a variation of the parking disc design that includes the International Symbol of Access
wheelchair
logo
, and a blue clock face in line with the EU blue badge system introduced in 2000.
in 1957 and adopted in Kassel
in 1961—in both cases the new parking system was introduced in an attempt to move away long-term parkers without erecting parking meter
s, which was considered too expensive. The concept proved to be effective and it spread throughout European countries in the 1960s. The first parking discs showed two clock faces—one with the arrival time and one with the departure time. Over time different variations of parking discs were created, including the Swiss variant that allowed for a fifteen hour maximum parking time.
A driver new to the system can get confused when not being informed about proper usage. For example, when Switzerland
switched to the European-wide blue parking disc system, the "blue zones" in Basel were marked with "1 hour" signs that previously read "1½ hours", giving the impression that the time was reduced, but in fact it had not been. Another common error is when an overseas tourist might set the clock to the mark just preceding the current arrival time, which can make a one hour parking zone as short as thirty minutes, possibly resulting in an unjustified parking ticket.
On March 31, 1979 the conference of ministers of transportation in the European Union
decided that a European standard should only use designs with a single clock face. The standardized clock disc was introduced as federal law in Germany
in November 1981, and similar designs were adopted in other European countries. From 1998 the old parking disc designs began to be abolished. France
set the last date to 2007, while in Switzerland
(not an EU member) the EU parking disc design was introduced in 2000 and the old designs abolished in 2003.
Modern parking signs demanding disc parking include a pictogram
of the standardized EU parking disc along with a number showing the maximum parking time in hours.
He had already started a parking experiment in November 1955 - parking on the Champs-Élysées
avenue was limited to 1 hour. In order to control the maximum parking time small pieces of paper were stuck on the outer ring of the tire with the color of the paper changing every hour. This made for an effective parking time between 1 hour to about 1 hour 55 minutes.
Additionally investigations on charging meter options were started in July 1955. The experiments, interrogations and studies lasted well into 1957 when the first "zone bleue" (blue zone) was installed in the East of Paris center (north of the Seine with boundaries at Place de l’Étoile, Gare du Nord and Louvre) that became obligatory on 1. October. Similarly to the test on the Champs-Élysées it imposed a maximum of 1 hour however it used another method of control: the prefect René Genebrier had accepted the proposal from engineer Robert Thiebault to use a device with a clock face that were to be set by the car driver to the time of arrival. The clock disc had two windows where one would show the hour of arrival and the other the hour of departure. The actual device had two clock faces - one for am time and the other for pm times.
This disc parking scheme was formally resolved 29. February 1960 by the Ministre de l'Intérieur. The blue zones were expanded at the time with a duration of 1 h 30 in general.
The EU parking disc regulation was skipped in France for a long time where a general time limit of 1 hour 30 was the only regulation in effect. The EU parking disc however allows a much wider range of parking regulations which were tested first in Bron
at the beginning of January 2001 when a new tramway line reached the city center. The Franklin Roosevelt Avenue was switched to a maximum of 30 minutes at the time that would a require a different clock disc. Finally the EU parking disc was officially introduced into the road statutory on 19. October 2007.
In 6. December 2007 the Ministre de l'Intérieur resolved a regulation on a parking disc that would only have one window to show the arrival time. This new parking disc differs somewhat from the EU parking disc - it is colored in brown tone (EU disc is blue), it is square with 150 mm on each side (EU disc is rectangular) and the marks on the clock face are set per ten minutes.
A later development in Switzerland was the introduction of red zones allowing for a maximum of 15 hours. This scheme required another parking disc that would allow for 24 hours to be shown.
The EU parking disc design was introduced in 2000 and the old designs abolished in 2003. This gave rise to some confusion among car drivers since the old parking regulations denoted "1:30 h" of maximum parking time while the new parking regulations imposed a limit of "1 hour". Since this time is rounded up to the next half of an hour there was no real difference however. The blue zone parking lots were kept however in the same way as before so that the new disc parking scheme reads as follows:
This regulation is not mandatory on Sundays and national holidays. Effectively the actual legal parking time in the blue zone differs widely - arriving at 11:30 allows for legal parking up to 14:30 (about 3 hours) and arriving on Saturday at 16:31 allows for parking up to Monday 08:00 (more than 39 hours).
automobile club - it was considered the better alternative over charging meters as disc parking is free of charge.
After the EU level had asked for a common parking disc with a single clock face in 1979 it was Germany to introduce a new design in November 1981 already - the "Verkehrsblattverlautbarung Nr. 237 vom 24. Nov. 1981" did specify a blue rectangle of 150 mm height and 110 mm width. The clock face has a mark per each half of an hour and the car drivers are required to put the clockhand on the mark. Germany's neighbouring countries would adopt the same design in the following decades that would eventually be the design chose for the EU parking disc.
The introduction of the EU parking disc in 1994 came about with a little variation as it required to set the mark to the next quarter of an hour:(§ 4 Abs. 3)
Consequently the parking disc design has four marks per hour instead of two (see appendix 1 in the statutory regulation of 1994). The German / EU parking discs are commonly accepted however when they are set correctly to the next quarter of the hour.
The regulations on the usage are identical to regulations in Germany.
Parking
Parking is the act of stopping a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied for more than a brief time. Parking on one or both sides of a road is commonly permitted, though often with restrictions...
through display of a parking disc or clock disc showing the time at which the vehicle was parked. A patrolling parking attendant
Parking attendant
A parking enforcement officer or parking attendant and sometimes parking inspector is a member of a traffic control department or agency who issues tickets for parking violations. Where parking meters are used, they may be known as a meter attendant or a traffic warden...
can inspect the disc to check whether payment is owed. The system is common in Continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
.
Procedure
Upon arrival at a parking lotParking lot
A parking lot , also known as car lot, is a cleared area that is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface....
requiring parking disc, the parking disc is set and put on display behind the front windshield
Windshield
The windshield or windscreen of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike or tram is the front window. Modern windshields are generally made of laminated safety glass, a type of treated glass, which consists of two curved sheets of glass with a plastic layer laminated between them for safety, and are glued...
. The disc has a thumb wheel (or knurling wheel) at the upper side that makes the clock face turn around its center point, allowing it to show different clock
Clock
A clock is an instrument used to indicate, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell". A silent instrument missing such a mechanism has traditionally been known as a timepiece...
times. The standard parking clock can show a full twelve hours, with additional marks for each half-hour. The time to be set is rounded up from the actual arrival time, for example a 10:00:01 arrival would be set to 10:30, while a 10:29:59 arrival would also be set to 10:30. The legal requirements are that "parking is allowed when the vehicle shows a parking disc that is easily readable from the outside and whose clockhand points to the mark of the half hour that follows the time of arrival".
The latest departure time is calculated from the displayed arrival time on the parking disc based on the indicated maximum parking time. For example, if the parking disc was set to 10:30 and the parking sign indicated a one hour maximum parking time, then free parking would end at 11:30. The system is intentionally set up in a way that only full and half hours are used to indicate arrival and departure. Arriving at 10:02 in a parking disc zone of one hour maximum parking time invokes a departure time of 11:30, and hence an effective time interval of eighty-eight minutes for free parking after arrival. In short, if the parking sign shows a limit of one hour maximum parking time, then the effective maximum parking time is sixty-one to ninety minutes because the difference to the next half hour is added.
Access
Parking discs can be obtained from filling stationFilling station
A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...
shops, and many gift and card shops also sell parking discs. The cheap paper parking dics go for less than one Euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
. Big Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
n car rental
Car rental
A car rental or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time for a fee...
companies such as Europcar
Europcar
Europcar is a Paris based car rental company owned by the French investment company Eurazeo, after its sale by the Volkswagen group. The company was founded in Paris in 1949...
and Sixt
Sixt
Sixt is a European car rental company. It has around 3,500 service stations in over 80 countries. Sixt was founded in 1912 by Martin Sixt in Munich.-Company facts:*Revenue : €1.44 billion*EBIT: €153.3 million*EBT: €121.647 million*Employees: 2,015...
lend their vehicles equipped with a parking disc. These are commonly left in places such as the two side bags in the front doors and the inside of the cover of the car log book
Log book
A log book, in records management, may refer to:* A book of log tables* Logbook a log of important events in the management, operation, and navigation of a ship; or of the important events of a trip or expn* Inventor's notebook...
.
Although the design and size of parking discs has been standardized there are often free giveaways with advertisements on the rear. Most parking discs are made of heavy paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
, but there is a common variant made of plastic
Plastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
with sharp edges that can also be used as an ice scraper
Ice scraper
An ice scraper is a handheld tool for removing frost, ice, and snow from windows, usually on automobiles. Basic scrapers have a plastic blade and handle, though some have blades made out of metal. More complex models often include brushes to help remove collected snow, or squeegees to remove...
. An illegal variation involves motorized clock discs that move the clock face in a timely manner. In general, clock discs must be set with the arrow pointing to a mark and not any of the white space between, or else it would be invalid and could result in a traffic ticket
Traffic ticket
A traffic ticket is a notice issued by a law enforcement official to a motorist or other road user, accusing violation of traffic laws. Traffic tickets generally come in two forms, citing a moving violation, such as exceeding the speed limit, or a non-moving violation, such as a parking violation,...
. As disc parking is common in Europe, virtually all cars there have some kind of parking disc.
Within Europe only the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
have a disabled persons parking scheme
Disabled parking permit
A disabled parking permit, also known as a handicapped permit, disabled placard, disabled badge and "Blue Badge" in the European Union, is displayed upon parking a vehicle carrying a person whose mobility would be otherwise significantly impaired by one or more of age, illness, disability or...
where a parking disc is required in certain circumstances. The UK administration offers a variation of the parking disc design that includes the International Symbol of Access
International Symbol of Access
The International Symbol of Access , also known as the Wheelchair Symbol, consists of a blue square overlaid in white with a stylized image of a person using a wheelchair...
wheelchair
Wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
, and a blue clock face in line with the EU blue badge system introduced in 2000.
History
Disc parking was first introduced in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1957 and adopted in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
in 1961—in both cases the new parking system was introduced in an attempt to move away long-term parkers without erecting parking meter
Parking meter
A parking meter is a device used to collect money in exchange for the right to park a vehicle in a particular place for a limited amount of time. Parking meters can be used by municipalities as a tool for enforcing their integrated on-street parking policy, usually related to their traffic and...
s, which was considered too expensive. The concept proved to be effective and it spread throughout European countries in the 1960s. The first parking discs showed two clock faces—one with the arrival time and one with the departure time. Over time different variations of parking discs were created, including the Swiss variant that allowed for a fifteen hour maximum parking time.
A driver new to the system can get confused when not being informed about proper usage. For example, when Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
switched to the European-wide blue parking disc system, the "blue zones" in Basel were marked with "1 hour" signs that previously read "1½ hours", giving the impression that the time was reduced, but in fact it had not been. Another common error is when an overseas tourist might set the clock to the mark just preceding the current arrival time, which can make a one hour parking zone as short as thirty minutes, possibly resulting in an unjustified parking ticket.
On March 31, 1979 the conference of ministers of transportation in the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
decided that a European standard should only use designs with a single clock face. The standardized clock disc was introduced as federal law in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in November 1981, and similar designs were adopted in other European countries. From 1998 the old parking disc designs began to be abolished. France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
set the last date to 2007, while in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
(not an EU member) the EU parking disc design was introduced in 2000 and the old designs abolished in 2003.
Modern parking signs demanding disc parking include a pictogram
Pictogram
A pictograph, also called pictogram or pictogramme is an ideogram that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and graphic systems in which the characters are to considerable extent pictorial in appearance.Pictography is a...
of the standardized EU parking disc along with a number showing the maximum parking time in hours.
France
The disc parking scheme was invented in Paris in the 1950s. The number of vehicles in the capital region had increased considerably from 400,000 in 1938 to as much as 920,000 at the end of 1955. On 19. September 1955 the police prefect ordered to tow off cars that were parked illegally. In parallel investigations were started how to get rid of the problem which he described in a publication 16. January 1956He had already started a parking experiment in November 1955 - parking on the Champs-Élysées
Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped horse-chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets and one of the most expensive strip of real estate in the world. The name is...
avenue was limited to 1 hour. In order to control the maximum parking time small pieces of paper were stuck on the outer ring of the tire with the color of the paper changing every hour. This made for an effective parking time between 1 hour to about 1 hour 55 minutes.
Additionally investigations on charging meter options were started in July 1955. The experiments, interrogations and studies lasted well into 1957 when the first "zone bleue" (blue zone) was installed in the East of Paris center (north of the Seine with boundaries at Place de l’Étoile, Gare du Nord and Louvre) that became obligatory on 1. October. Similarly to the test on the Champs-Élysées it imposed a maximum of 1 hour however it used another method of control: the prefect René Genebrier had accepted the proposal from engineer Robert Thiebault to use a device with a clock face that were to be set by the car driver to the time of arrival. The clock disc had two windows where one would show the hour of arrival and the other the hour of departure. The actual device had two clock faces - one for am time and the other for pm times.
This disc parking scheme was formally resolved 29. February 1960 by the Ministre de l'Intérieur. The blue zones were expanded at the time with a duration of 1 h 30 in general.
The EU parking disc regulation was skipped in France for a long time where a general time limit of 1 hour 30 was the only regulation in effect. The EU parking disc however allows a much wider range of parking regulations which were tested first in Bron
Bron
Bron is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France.It lies east of Lyon. It is the sixth-largest suburb of the city of Lyon, and is adjacent to its east side. It forms part of the Urban Community of Lyon.-History:...
at the beginning of January 2001 when a new tramway line reached the city center. The Franklin Roosevelt Avenue was switched to a maximum of 30 minutes at the time that would a require a different clock disc. Finally the EU parking disc was officially introduced into the road statutory on 19. October 2007.
In 6. December 2007 the Ministre de l'Intérieur resolved a regulation on a parking disc that would only have one window to show the arrival time. This new parking disc differs somewhat from the EU parking disc - it is colored in brown tone (EU disc is blue), it is square with 150 mm on each side (EU disc is rectangular) and the marks on the clock face are set per ten minutes.
Switzerland
Many cities in Switzerland borrowed the blue zone concept in the same way as in France with a maximum time of 1 h 30. In cities like Basel the blue zones meant that parking lots were marked with blue lines where the scheme would be effective while other (non blue) parking lots were free. No other signposting was used in these blue zones to mark the controlled space - instead the parking discs showed the regulations on the back side.A later development in Switzerland was the introduction of red zones allowing for a maximum of 15 hours. This scheme required another parking disc that would allow for 24 hours to be shown.
The EU parking disc design was introduced in 2000 and the old designs abolished in 2003. This gave rise to some confusion among car drivers since the old parking regulations denoted "1:30 h" of maximum parking time while the new parking regulations imposed a limit of "1 hour". Since this time is rounded up to the next half of an hour there was no real difference however. The blue zone parking lots were kept however in the same way as before so that the new disc parking scheme reads as follows:
- Arrival Time Parking Time
- 08:00 - 11:30 1 hour
- 13:30 - 18:00 1 hour
This regulation is not mandatory on Sundays and national holidays. Effectively the actual legal parking time in the blue zone differs widely - arriving at 11:30 allows for legal parking up to 14:30 (about 3 hours) and arriving on Saturday at 16:31 allows for parking up to Monday 08:00 (more than 39 hours).
Germany
The city of Kassel was the first to take over the French regulation on parking discs in Germany. The concept spread quickly as it was supported by the powerful ADACADAC
The ADAC is Germany's and Europe's largest automobile club, with more than 17 million members in June 2010. It was founded on May 24, 1903 as "Deutsche Motorradfahrer-Vereinigung" and was renamed in 1911...
automobile club - it was considered the better alternative over charging meters as disc parking is free of charge.
After the EU level had asked for a common parking disc with a single clock face in 1979 it was Germany to introduce a new design in November 1981 already - the "Verkehrsblattverlautbarung Nr. 237 vom 24. Nov. 1981" did specify a blue rectangle of 150 mm height and 110 mm width. The clock face has a mark per each half of an hour and the car drivers are required to put the clockhand on the mark. Germany's neighbouring countries would adopt the same design in the following decades that would eventually be the design chose for the EU parking disc.
Austria
While Salzburg took over the parking disc from Paris there was also another variant in Vienna. The city introduced a parking disc on 16. March 1959 that had a single clock face with a clock hand with two marks that were exactly on hour away. When the black mark of the clock hand was set to the time of arrival on the clock face the red mark would point to the time of departure. This design was introduced by the director of urban planning Aladar Pecht so that it would also be nicknamed "Pechtscheibe" (Pecht Disc).The introduction of the EU parking disc in 1994 came about with a little variation as it required to set the mark to the next quarter of an hour:(§ 4 Abs. 3)
Consequently the parking disc design has four marks per hour instead of two (see appendix 1 in the statutory regulation of 1994). The German / EU parking discs are commonly accepted however when they are set correctly to the next quarter of the hour.
Sweden
Disc parking was introduced to Sweden when the Farsta Centrum in Stockholm required to use parking discs beginning 1. December 1993.The regulations on the usage are identical to regulations in Germany.