Chisinau lacks a public transport strategy. The strategy approved by the Chisinau Municipal Council in 2014 is rather a study. The municipality didn’t approve a plan for implementing the given strategy and money for putting the public transport strategy into practice wasn’t earmarked in the local budget. The data from the strategy are seven-eight years old and are no longer relevant. The issue was discussed in the public presentation of the public policy study “Optimization of the management of public transport in the municipality of Chisinau” that was carried out with financial support from Soros Foundation Moldova, IPN reports.

Young researcher Cristina Voroneanu, a scholar of the Public Policy Program of Soros Foundation, said the public transport infrastructure in Chisinau is old. New trolleybuses were purchased in the capital city the last few years, while at the Urban Bus Company 112 of the 142 biases have been used long and are worn-out. According to the World Health Organization, life expectancy decreases by 1.8 years owing to exhaust gas emissions. In 2018, during 266 of 365 days, the values of nitrogen dioxide in the air were over the norm.

In 2012-2021, the number of minibuses in the municipality of Chisinau decreased twice. The investments in the Urban Bus Company will not solve all the problems faced in the urban transit system. The municipality should invest in specialists, especially those who technical specialty. It is also hard to implement projects in the public transport as there are no data about the flow of commuters, including in particular areas and at particular hours, stated Cristina Voroneanu.

Deputy mayor of Chisinau Victor Chironda admitted that the approaches to the public transport in the capital city during the last few years were partial and sporadic and didn’t improve the transport system on the whole. Not many investments were made in the sector. Some of the actions taken to fluidize traffic only worsened the situation, such as parking places set up on transit streets and reorganization of routes without argumentation. The lack of an analysis of the flow of passengers and of the new mobility needs led to a substantial and swift rise in the number of cars in the city.

The deputy mayor noted that a project will be implemented in Chisinau to transpose the good public transport practices applied in the Polish city of Lublin. The project is financially supported by the EU that offered a grant for the purpose to the municipality of Chisinau.