Starting Wednesday, October 1st, the municipality of The Hague will begin a six-month pilot program in which scan cars will also detect parked vehicles on the sidewalk. This is how the municipality aims to keep both the sidewalk and the street accessible and safe for residents and emergency services. The pilot program will take place in the Centrum and Bezuidenhout neighborhoods.
“Parking on the sidewalk has serious consequences for the safety and quality of life in neighborhoods,”says Arjen Kapteijns, Alderman for Energy Transition, Mobility, and Raw Materials. “Cars on the sidewalk obscure visibility at intersections and often force people in wheelchairs, walkers, or strollers onto the road. This is not only a nuisance but also dangerous. Emergency services can also be hindered in their work. That’s why the municipality is launching this pilot program to improve road safety and quality of life in the city districts.”
Adjustments
Currently, the Special Investigation Officers (BOAs) use their scan cars to check only cars parked without payment. With the pilot program, the scan cars will continue this work, but they will also check cars parked outside designated parking spaces. To achieve this, the existing fleet of scan cars has been modified and expanded with software that can detect sidewalk parking. The new systems have been extensively tested in collaboration with the Public Prosecution Service’s Central Processing Office (CVOM). The BOAs have also been trained to carefully review the images. They record violations, after which the central government collects the fines.
Evaluation
The pilot program will run until March 2026. During this period, the municipality will not only investigate whether sidewalk parking is decreasing, but also how the technology functions, its effects on enforcement efforts, and residents’ perceptions of the approach. Based on these results, the municipality will decide whether and how the scanning vehicles will be continued. This may be expanded to other neighborhoods or to other forms of illegal parking, such as parking in loading and unloading areas or in disabled parking spaces.