Last year, the Hungarian government ordered the scrapping of parking fees in public areas, a measure they claimed would help avoid the spread of the new coronavirus infection. A new survey suggests the step did not really count for the population.
The Hungarian government may soon end one of its most controversial pandemic measures, free parking, which was introduced to discourage people from using public transport. Free parking has made life more difficult for local residents and caused a serious loss of revenue for local authorities, essentially the only ones that have received and continue to receive compensation for the lost revevenue are those run by a mayor with government party ties, the business news site napi.hu points out.
If people don't have to pay for parking, they don't change spaces at the right pace, which in a big city like Budapest leads to chaos.
Many argue that the main purpose of the measure was to put a spanner in the works for local authorities. And most mayors reported a loss of tens, sometimes hundreds, of millions of forints in revenue as early as November last year, and another six months have passed since then.
Previous surveys by napi.hu have also shown that the issue is very divisive, with a national majority in favor, but where it is a real problem, such as in Budapest, a majority of people are against it. Even among those who would otherwise drive and could benefit from the measure, there are a fair number who are against it.
The responses in a new survey show that 46% of people nationwide are affected, with 54% not owning a car. 27%, the majority of those with a car, said they would not use their vehicle less, as free parking did not count. A further 9% will not use their car less for other reasons, such as not having had the opportunity to drop it off or being able to work from home.


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