Parking in regulated parking zones in Madrid is preparing for a big change. For the first time, parking meters will be able to operate at night and also on Sundays and holidays in areas with more traffic and parking pressure.
Until now, the Regulated Parking Service (SER) had a fixed schedule, from Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 21:00 and Saturdays until 15:00, with Sundays and holidays free, but the modification of the Sustainable Mobility Ordinance will allow the City Council to extend those hours and those days where neighbors request it and it is accredited that the neighborhood suffers a permanent saturation of cars.
Which neighborhoods could be affected by the change of hours in the SER zones?
In practice, this means that areas with intense commercial, cultural, sports or leisure activity, such as the neighborhoods next to El Retiro, fashionable areas around the central almond or environments of large enclosures, may see the obligation to pay for parking extended “beyond 21:00” on weekdays, from 15:00 on Saturdays and even on Sundays and holidays, as long as the Junta de Gobierno approves it and while that situation of high demand lasts.
The declared objective is to guarantee parking spaces for residents and to favor rotation with respect to the vehicles of those who come from outside to spend the day or night, as well as to reduce eternal turns in search of a space, with the impact that this has on traffic and emissions.
The change will not be automatic or citywide. The regulation opens the door for 22 new neighborhoods to join the SER and for those already regulated to request extended hours and days, but each case will have to go through neighborhood consultation, agreement of the district boards and final decision of the Governing Board.
In addition, in the next ten years Madrid could add up to 258,985 regulated parking spaces, 42% more than now, and see how the idea that free on-street parking, especially at night and on public holidays, will be more and more the exception than the rule, becomes generalized.