No parking

Drive out to one of the CR's 127 hypermarkets on a Sat., and the parking lot's full. Drive into downtown Prague on a Sat., and most of the parking spots on the street are empty. Many residents are gone (some to their cottages, others to hypermarkets), leaving their spaces vacant. Any out-of-towner who ventures into the city risks getting a ticket, a boot or a tow, because most of the empty spots are reserved for locals. Traffic cops are drawn to empty streets like flies to honey and are esp. vigilant on weekends. Reserved park-ing and traffic-reduction schemes make sense during the week, but the lack of free parking on weekends is hurting the city center. This works to the advantage of suburban real-estate developers (mostly foreigners), who've been successful at changing the shopping habits of Czechs. Giving people a free place to park on the weekends would be an easy way to bring some shoppers back to the downtown.