Cars in Chisinau to be parked in ‘street pockets’

Chisinau Mayor General Dorin Chirtoaca has apparently found a solution for the unauthorised parking in the city: cars will be allowed to park on pavements or side lanes called ‘street pockets’ specially designed to accommodate parked vehicles. The mayor has requested the decision-makers from the General Department for Public Transport and Communication Lines at a City Hall operative meeting held on Monday July 9 to locate the streets in Chisinau where the ‘street pockets’ could be built, and even the sidewalks where pedestrians won’t be disturbed by the parked cars. The mayor mentioned that in these places the cars would be arranged at 45 degrees to the aisle. At present, the city has an urgent need of underground and multileveled parking areas, but this is not possible to implement so quickly, the mayor states, emphasising that it’s necessary now to act promptly in order to bring this situation to the optimal state. Chirtoaca mentioned that the decision-makers from the Transport Department should take part in the street and pedestrian passages’ marking under the European standards, especially in the vicinity of educational and medical establishments, and should prohibit car parking alongside kerbs. The mayor also pleaded for improving the transport network towards the Chisinau suburbs, with the responsible people in the field to coordinate these efforts with the mayors from the respective localities and with the minibus route management. Particular attention is to be paid to securing the suburban localities during the peak period with public transport, when the buses and minibuses driving from the suburbs to the city are overcrowded. Dorin Chirtoaca said the police have been already involved in talks with car owners in order to determine them not to park alongside kerbs. Another requirement by the mayor as regards the traffic improvement was for the public transport to stop close to the street kerb and not at a certain distance from the kerb as they use to do it at the moment.