We tell you all about automatic parking control in Toulouse

From August 1 to 15, as tradition dictates, surface parking will be free at Toulouse. But the day after this truce, the case will be complicated for the free riders. After Paris, Bordeaux or Marseille, the Pink City will switch to the Lapi system, for automated reading of license plates. Two unmarked cars equipped with this system, and already being tested at the moment, will crisscross the streets, comparing the scanner plates with those recorded in the parking meters, in the resident parking listing or on the Park Now app. For vehicles in violation, a municipal agent, seated on the passenger side, will manually validate, “and with discernment”, the plum via his terminal.

So, rest assured all the same, the Lapi will not control all of the 16,000 paid surface places from August 16. “We are going to start gradually by favoring quality over quantity, promises Emilion Esnault, the Security Assistant. The aim is to improve the sharing of public space by facilitating staff turnover”. The elected official also sees in this automation the possibility of “freeing up time for other tasks, such as controlling blue zones or annoying parking”.

A complication for people with disabilities

But the machine, however sophisticated it may be, cannot do everything. In particular, it will be unable to detect the badge for people with reduced mobility (PRM) which allows them to park for free, everywhere and all the time. To overcome this gap in the Lapi, parking meters will issue those with a sticker a “free parking valid for 24 hours” ticket, with the inconvenience of having to go to the parking meter. Otherwise, the app will offer the same function. And the town hall, after looking at what is being done in other cities, offers a third solution: to voluntarily register its plate in a database that Lapi terminals can consult. But the process is only valid for one vehicle.

The provision, voted on Friday in the municipal council, came up against the deep hostility of Odile Maurin. The opposition councilor, confined to a wheelchair and president of the Handi-Social association, fears a “rain of fines on disabled drivers”. Above all, she considers that “this will represent additional constraints for people who already have a lot of daily difficulties”, especially when they travel in the vehicle of a different auxiliary every day. The Association of the Paralyzed of France (APF) is just as reluctant. It recalls that a disabled person may have to use “different vehicles in the context of his professional, social or private life”.

Emilion Esnault ensures that “human” control will supplement the Lapi for the macaroons and that PRMs verbalized by mistake will not have to pay the famous “Post-parking flat rate” before contesting it directly on the City’s website.

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