San José Short of 800 Parking Spaces, Study Shows
Cars are parked everywhere, blocking both sides of a street, driveways and now Avenida Segunda has become a giant parking lot in the evenings and weekends, creating even more traffic chaos. Why is this happening?

According to calculations by the Municipality of San José and the Asociación Costarricense de Estacionamientos y Afines (ACEA) - the public parking lot association - the city is short of 800 parking parking spaces to meet the growing number of vehicles coming into the Gran Area Metropolitana.

The situation is made worse by the high cost of parking spaces, it now costs up to ¢600 colones (us$1.20) per hour in some downtown parking lots and with the blessing of the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT), while the Policía de Tránsito in allowing cars parked just about anywhere without fining or towing.

Downtown traffic can easily bottleneck with a parked vehicle on many of the narrow downtown streets, while traffic police look the other way.

All over the city the "guachiman" (watchman) has become an important person, as this is the person that will, for a small fee - usually a fraction of what a parking lot charges - will look after your car while parkd illegally on the street.

Enginner Rony Rodríguez, del Departamento de Ingeniería de Tránsito, says that the MOPT has no way of controlling the cost of parking spaces since the 450 public parking lots in the country operate under lay 7717, which has no control to regulate the cost of parking spaces.

Ana Arías, a member of the board of directors of ACEA, says that the price of a parking space is based on supply and demand. Arías added that before an ACEA member changes their price they send a copy of the change to the MOPT and if there is no response within 15 days, they see that as an approval for the increase.

The MOPT has plans to regulate prices but it has to wait for the Legislative Assembly to reform the law that would regulate prices.

The parking lot association says it has been working with the MOPT and San José municipal officials so that its 200 members comply with all existing laws and regulations.