Municipality doesn’t give up the idea of bringing minibuses back on Chisinau’s main artery

The city authorities have not given up the idea of letting minibuses run on Stefan cel Mare Boulevard again, but they don’t have a solution for this initiative just yet. Sergiu Polihovici, head of the Chisinau Mayor General’s Office, told Info-Prim Neo that following a series of debates the municipality reached the conclusion that it wouldn’t be wise to let all the routes that once crisscrossed the boulevard throng again here. Instead, it would be reasonable to give priority to the lengthy and circuitous minibus routes. The head of the mayor’s office says all the pros and cons will be carefully assessed. The municipality will also take into account the recommendations of the Traffic Police concerning the hourly traffic flow values. The head of the municipal transport division, Veaceslav Tarna, however strongly opposes the idea. In a report requested by the mayor, Tarna said the residents have already got used to the new routes, for which the municipality created “proper conditions, to the extent to which the budgetary resources and the situation on the road allowed it”. Tarna maintained “the boulevard is today too busy to eventually cope with some 500 minibuses”, adding “the measure will push the situation to critical”. Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca has earlier said the public transport is often inefficient in the central part of the city because some routes overlap. Furthermore, secondary streets are not properly provided with street lights, therefore to avoid accidents and other problems public transport must run on the main roads rather than on secondary. According to the mayor, the decision to reroute minibuses to the secondary streets was regarded as an abuse by everybody, including by much of the local authorities.