Yesterday when I arrived at work they had closed down the second big parking area. I had to drive around campus (our office is located at KTH Royal Institute of Technology) to find another place to park the car. Luckily I found one a walk away. Which is fine with me. But two big parking spaces have been closed down because they are building houses there and they don’t have any plans to replace them. So where do all the cars go? The longterm aim for them is a car-free campus. Commendable of course environmentally speaking and all.
But… it is not good for me!
On top of that, I can’t even drive to the underground and park there because they have made it so that you have to pay congestion tax to park by the underground (EPIC fail!) and then you have to pay for the parking itself AND pay for public transportation. Not an option.
On top of that again, the congestion tax is double as expensive now as it was before january 2016.
In fairness – I don’t really need to take the car to work. I live close, hey, I could even walk to work if I need to (would take a bit more than an hour!). And my plan is not to be driving to work every day in the long run.
BUT here’s the thing – for me being a new driver I still need that daily practice behind the wheel. I need to take every chance I get to drive. I feel the difference in confidence and routine even if I let the car be for only a couple of days.
I invest a lot of money in my driving to become a good driver – I bought a car of my own, I ”gladly” pay the congestion tax every day, the parking costs of 50 kr per day and fuel to get the practice I need as long as I need it. I see this as a continuation to the training to get the license. Just because I got the license doesn’t mean I am a fulfilled driver. Especially not in my age, and for someone who has never ever been driving anything but a bike before September 19 2014.
But I can’t pay congestion tax, parking costs and public transportation costs, which means parking the car by the underground is no option. And at work they are closing down parking area after parking area… I need to be able to park the car somewhere!
I found a roundabout solution. Driving north towards for example Täby, you don’t have to pay congestion tax. And there is a free parking area by several stations on the Roslagsbanan community train. So in theory, I could drive there, park the car there, and take the train to work and only have to pay for fuel and public transportation. But I would get an unnessecary long way to work. But if that is what it takes to get my regular driving practice in the end…
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