On Sunday, 14 April, a dilapidated old Skoda Felicia was purposefully parked in the middle of the Pięć Rogów Square in Warsaw, a flagship project of the Warsaw City Hall, aimed at giving the area previously dominated by traffic jams and full of exhaust fumes back to pedestrians and cyclists.

The driver who parked there received a PLN 100 parking ticket, but he didn’t move the car and stood by it to make a point. By paying the affordable fine, he 'rented' himself a parking spot in the square that city authorities expected to be vibrant and better equipped to meet the expectations of the residents of Warsaw.

The "Felicia Parking" incident was actually a ruse by the Municipal Parking Department (Polish: Miejska Agenda Parkingowa, MAP). The Warsaw Smog Alarm organisation commented on the unusual protest on X, stating that the driver parked his car on the pavement "because it is a common practice that rarely results in any consequences, even on the capital's prestigious projects and lawns."

MAP is an initiative that brings together urban movements such as Miasto Jest Nasze, Bydgoski Ruch Miejski, Akcja Ratunkowa dla Krakowa, and the Clean Cities Campaign. According to the MAP website, the initiative proposes four concrete demands for changes in parking regulations that could benefit Polish cities, improve dilapidated pavements, and prevent the devastation of greenery.

The four demands of the Municipal Parking Department are:

• The creation of a 'fair parking' zone, where it is no more profitable to pay a fine than to park in designated parking areas. Currently, a fine of PLN 100 allows drivers to park almost anywhere for up to a week.
• The removal of outdated regulations. Regulations that permit parking on pavements date back to 1967 when cars were scarce in Poland. The aim is to reverse the current situation where cars parked on pedestrian roads are deemed acceptable.
• An increase in fines for lousy parking. Penalties for illegal parking have not changed for over two decades, leading to absurdities such as a 500-zloty fine for littering and a 100-zloty fine for abandoning a car on the pavement. The department proposes an increase in the minimum fine for parking offences from PLN 100 to PLN 300. Additionally, they advocate for a "repeat offender" mechanism, which imposes progressively higher fines for each successive parking violation.
• Effective protection of greenery. According to the department, the lack of regulations protecting greenery from parking on lawns means there is no way to put a wheel lock on the offender's car or award penalty points. The department seeks to supplement the traffic law with a ban on destroying or damaging vegetation and introduce new fines for such offences.

It was Szymon Nieradka, the creator of the website uprzejmiedonosze.net, who parked Skoda Felicia at Pięć Rogów Square. The website allows individuals to anonymously report illegally parked cars by submitting an electronic form containing relevant details and photos of the vehicle. After submission, the website sends the report to the applicable municipal police department in 411 towns.