Up until the first of January this year, the parking of a Compressed Natural Gas powered vehicle in a public parking building or garage in the Czech Republic was prohibited. An amendment to Act 341/2014 Coll. changed that. The Czech Gas Association recently reported that since the legsilation was passed there has been a steadily increasing number of vehicles utilising specially allocated NGV parking bays.
New garages of shopping centers built in accordance with current regulations are obliged to allocate 10% of parking space for gas-powered vehicles if the total number of car parks exceeds 27. The central business area of Kladno has a total of 650 parking spaces in the garage with 62 parking spaces for cars on gas. The Fýda shopping center in Frydek Mistek has nearly 600 parking spaces and 60 spaces for gas-powered vehicles. In case of leakage of gaseous fuel instantaneous exhausts divert gas outside the garage to prevent increase in concentration.
The amendment to the Act, which came into force 1 January 2015 repealed a general ban on underground parking of vehicles using CNG. Despite the change of status, some garage owners still hold an unbased bias toward CNG-powered vehicles. “We often see that some operators even if they have the necessary equipment prescribed by decree to allow parking, unnecessarily prohibit entrance for CNG vehicles. We will come and explain such bans are nonsensical, especially in multi-storey open car parks that are naturally ventilated, “says Peter Vomáčka, spokesman for ÚAMK (Czech Republic’s motorist assistance provider).
This article was sourced from the Czech Gas Association (CGA), an independent group of firms and specialists operating in the gas industry and related fields.
