Words: Rebekah McCrorie (she/her)
In the meantime, all we can do is hope our next bus turns up on time, hope the prices of parking don’t keep going up, and hope that, one day, the cafes on Byers Road will serve us sourdough that doesn’t require a chainsaw to cut through.
What is notoriously affiliated with white lines, runs rampant on the city’s overpriced-coffee-shop adorned streets, and can drastically alter a person’s behaviour in a matter of seconds? That’s right: Glasgow’s parking predicament. From the dreaded plastic yellow squares abasing your windscreen to sneaky rising prices at the parking machine, it seems the city is bankrupting you before you’ve even left the warmth of your Ford Fiesta. The streets of Glasgow, from the Gorbals to Garnethill, are already akin to the Wild West, with traffic wardens slinging lassos in the form of tickets for parking just a teensy bit over the line.
Despite the vast majority of students opting for public transport (shout-out to the beacon of light that is the Young Scot Card) rather than buying and driving their own cars, many car-driving commuters and residents are repeatedly drawing the short straw when it comes to parking. With often unreliable buses never gracing you with their presence, and cancelled trains disrupting your schedule, a car is the best option for many. Once you have managed to secure a sought-after space in the city centre and have reversed in, perfectly straight, making your old driving instructor proud, you are slapped in the face by a fee of £1.60 for 15 minutes. Say your plans for the day were to meet some old friends and grab some exorbitant brunch in the city centre, perhaps some impenetrable sourdough with a side of crispy bacon. You then get chucked out 2 hours later because the cafe needs your table back for the next customer. Once you’re outside in the bitter cold, you remember you need to, rather frustratingly, shift the car as there’s a 2 hour maximum stay.
To top it all off, you might have a little peruse around the many shops of The St Enoch Centre and Buchanan Street (note: avoid everything in Urban Outfitters unless there is a sale tag). Add in walking time to and fro from your car, and add on a little more – shopping can really enfeeble you – and you’re likely looking at paying not far off £30 to park for a few hours, during which you’ve managed to crack a tooth on avocado toast and purchase a fast-fashion top that’ll become outdated in 2 weeks. And, after all that, as you flee the scene of the crime, don’t be surprised if you pop a tyre on a pothole raking up the day’s bill even higher.
The fee of £1.60 in the city centre was once £1.40, but recently rose by 14% as a result of a council budget. Outside the aforementioned areas, the fee for 15 short minutes has risen by 25%, from £0.80 to £1. Glasgow’s Subway prices have also increased slightly, meaning even the Clockwork Orange isn’t safe from the city’s rising costs. It can be said that city living, and even city days-out, are costly from the get-go, but with parking prices steadily increasing, working-class people and those already struggling financially may face social exclusion and miss out on opportunities within the city due to these rises.
It is also important to note that there are barriers up before you even make it into the city itself, and although they are not literal concrete barriers, they are just as vexing for some. The introduction of Glasgow’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ) in 2023 determines which vehicles may drive into the city, in an effort to reduce pollution. This means that working-class drivers will be disproportionately affected, as not everyone can afford a snazzy car that meets the guidelines. Entering the LEZ in a vehicle outside the list set by the government could set you back a minimum of £60, which is simply unaffordable for many when even your usual Aldi shop is costing you an arm and a leg, and that’s all before adding rent into the equation.
The cost of living crisis has a part to play in all of this, too. Those 5 little words have been on everybody’s lips, yet their impact has been far from ‘little’. The amalgamation of soaring living costs and egregious parking prices will no doubt push many further into the depths of poverty: from overpriced flats to bank-breaking food-shops, it seems Glasgow is only getting more unaffordable.
If you’re lucky enough to snag a flat that isn’t dripping with condensation and doesn’t have upstairs neighbours that do catwalks in high heels at 1 a.m., then you could consider a permit for your car. It may seem like a great idea, but, if you weren’t filing for bankruptcy after paying the rent, you may be after paying for the permit: a quick search on Glasgow City Council’s website displays annual costs of up to £328 in the city centre. To put that number into perspective, you could buy 82 Tesco Meal Deals for the same fee. Is it still worth it?
To say that the parking predicament in Glasgow is a plight is a bit of an understatement: it is actively aggravating people’s already dire situations. And, as prices continue to rise, and living costs go up, such situations will only worsen. In the meantime, all we can do is hope our next bus turns up on time, hope the prices of parking don’t keep going up, and hope that, one day, the cafes on Byers Road will serve us sourdough that doesn’t require a chainsaw to cut through.
