Buying parking tickets by mobile phone – this sounds modern and convenient, and it usually is. Instead of looking for the right change of device, you can tap on your mobile and pay the fee. If the trip takes longer, the parking time can easily be extended while out and about.
The digital age now also reaches Lohmen in Saxon Switzerland. “Drivers in Luhmen can now purchase their parking tickets with their smartphones,” says a press release sent out by the community on October 1. This digital card explains that it has many advantages, with which you can pay without cash and completely contactless.
However, what’s not explicitly stated in the ad: With the new mobile car park, Lohmen charges a fee in many parking lots designated for primarily hiking. Specifically, it concerns the hiking car park in Moelsdorf, the one in Daubemühle and the Wesenitztal/Lohmener Klamm car park – a small gravel place on the road to Porschdorf – as explains Björn Schwedes, Head of Public Order, when asked. So far, visitors have been able to park their cars there for free, but the fee is now due.
Parking fee, but no parking ticket machines
New parking fees are paid by smartphone – and exclusively by smartphone. There are no traditional parking ticket machines at the mentioned hiking parks. So if you want to park your car there, you need a mobile phone with the right app.
What if you don’t have a smartphone? “So you can’t stand there,” says Mayor Jörg Mildner (CDU). Or risk a ticket. According to the mayor, the measure is aimed primarily at mobile homes that are legally allowed to park on such sites for one night. Mobile home owners are sure to have cell phones, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to find remote parking spaces without the relevant apps. The new payment concept also applies to the caravan park at Alte Schäferei in Lohmen.
Liebethaler Grund . Hikers’ parking spaces
However, the procedure affects all guests. Also day hikers who want to hike from Mühlsdorf or Daubemühle via the Liebethaler Grund to Lochmühle, the Richard Wagner monument or from the Wesenitztal/Lohmener Klamm stand to the old Niezelgrund hydroelectric station.
Do all older hikers own a smartphone? And if so, can you install the app you need?
The original idea was to install a central parking ticket machine in the center of Luhmen, from where tickets for surrounding parking spaces for parkers could also be drawn. But there are now doubts about this idea, explains Mayor Jörg Mildner. Because then the visitors, who naturally got to the parking lot first, will have to get back to the machine and then back to the parking lot.
Official banners missing
In general, the concept does not seem well thought out. Initially announced at the beginning of October, no indication of the new toll was found in any of the parking spaces. There are now green flags from app provider Parkster, with whom Lohmen is collaborating on management. But it is similar to billboards and also contains the misleading phrase “No additional charge”.
There is nowhere to see that there is a parking fee and how high it is. The official “Loaded” pass tag is completely missing. There is still room for improvement, Mayor Mildner explains. Missing banners will be installed “Soon”. However, the fee schedule does apply, Mildner says. “And we’re in control, too.”
Soon mobile parking will be available in Bastei
The Municipal Council decided to introduce new parking fees on July 1 of this year. Three hours at a cost of 2 euros per car, and a daily ticket 4 euros. For mobile homes there is an overnight stay in the car park for €6. The Parkster app is available for free on Google Play and the Apple App Store. To park, drivers have to enter the license plate number and the time to park. Payment is made on account or by credit card.
Mobile phone parking in the Basti car park is supposed to still be possible in November, but only on days with few visitors and when the barrier system is not in operation.
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