Parking Meter to go LIVE in Beirut - Blogging Beirut on the NY Times

October 26, 2007, 10:44 am
In Beirut, Time Again to Feed the Meter

By Patrick J. Lyons

Tags: law enforcement, lebanon, middle east, transportation

Well, the country is still plagued by fractious sectarian politics, unsolved assassinations of political leaders, armed strife between radical militias and the national army, heavy interference by neighboring countries and a host of other problems.

But here is a sign that after more than 30 years of strife and dysfunction, Lebanon still hasn’t given up trying to be a normal, peaceful country again: Parking meters are returning to Beirut next Monday.

According to Agence France-Presse:

“Twenty of the coin- and card-operated machines will be inaugurated in a trendy shopping area of the city center, which has for the most part been declared off-limits to parking for security concerns.

The new meters are the fancy modern electronic kind that look like small ATM’s. Blogging Beirut took a peek at them when the city started installing them earlier this year in preparation for Monday. The city had old-fashioned mechanical meters decades ago, but they were wiped out during the 1975-1990 civil war. There are valet parking garages in the city for those who can afford them and who don’t mind having their cars searched for bombs — a routine practice, Michael Slackman of The New York Times reported in July — but for everyone else, the choice has often been between parking illegally and not parking at all.

Now, in something of an echo of the old Rudy Giuliani approach in New York City — crack down on the little problems, and the big ones will take care of themselves — AFP quotes Col. Joseph Doueihy, who heads the traffic department at the interior ministry: “We have a special police force from the traffic department that will be enforcing the regulations. Our aim is to institute order and to ease the city’s traffic chaos.”

Like Main Street merchants everywhere, some Beirut shopkeepers said they hope the new metered parking will help attract customers who now avoid the city center because of the difficulty of parking there. But others wonder whether the idea can work in a country full of improvisers and rule-benders.

“I don’t think people will respect the rules because they are used to chaos,” Safaa Shaker, who works in a craft store, told AFP. “I think they will try and find a way to beat the system. And even if they get tickets, do you really think they will pay them?”