Moscow authorities are planning to introduce paid-parking zones beyond the Garden Ring, the city's deputy mayor said.
The zones will mostly be located around offices, shopping centers and markets within the Third Ring Road, one of Moscow's concentric circles that lies between the Garden Ring and the Moscow Ring Road, though further information about locations and price of parking is as of yet unavailable, Deputy Mayor Maxim Liksutov said Monday, Kommersant reported.
Further changes will reportedly be forthcoming in May 2014, with parking in the city center to be made free on Sundays and public holidays, and the city introducing inspectors to help regulate the zones.
Paid-parking — first introduced to the city center in late 2012 in a bid to help tackle congestion — was expanded up to the borders of the downtown Boulevard Ring last June, and widened to the Garden Ring at the end of December.
There is some evidence that the scheme is working, as the average speed in areas of the city with paid parking increasing by up to 9 percent, Liksutov, who heads the city's transportation department, said.
The project has received a mixed reaction from Muscovites, tens of thousands of whom signed a petition asking for a referendum on the parking zones before A Just Russia, the petition's organizers, decided not to submit the signatures to Moscow election authorities because of alleged forgeries.
The deputy mayor added that residents' concerns would be taken into consideration when determining the locations.