“To build an underground parking space in Bucharest would cost 40,000 euros”. What is the solution?

The mayor of Sector 2, Radu Mihaiu, claims that in his sector alone, there are probably 100,000 cars parked where everyone can. “It’s unreasonable for people to wait for parking 50 meters from the apartment,” he believes.

“I can make parking spaces in uninhabited areas, and I could boast of many parking spaces made, but which do not meet any need. This is a reality, the fact that there is not much space, there are very few spaces. On Colentina, for example, there is a space where we will build some parking spaces, but there are few spaces where we can actually build”, says Radu Mihaiu, the mayor of Sector 2.

“To build under the boulevard, one by one, the cost of a parking space becomes very expensive. Today I think it is somewhere around 40,000 euros, if we build it underground, and that would mean that we would also have the boulevard in administration and very often on these boulevards there are works for Termoenergetica, for heating, for trams, etc. They cannot wait one after another”, explains the mayor.

He says there is often an illusory expectation from people.

“The parking lot at Cora Pantelimon is not full because people say it is too far, 300 m from the house, I would like it to be near my house. Or this cannot be done for so many blocks.

There are too many apartments that want the parking lot to be 50 m away. It’s unreasonable, it’s not possible, there’s no space”.

To the question “What parking deficit does Sector 2 have?”, the mayor answered: “It depends on how we calculate this deficit. People registered for residential parking spaces think there are 8,000. The reality is probably somewhere in the tens, maybe even 100,000 cars that don’t have a parking space and that often park either illegally on the curb or on the illegal sidewalk” .

“But there are hundreds, thousands of parking spaces, they are private and I don’t have this statistic, thousands of parking spaces that are unused. Developers are required to build them. I make sure they build them. And they sit empty. It’s not normal to ask a citizen who buys an apartment to also buy his parking space, because maybe this citizen goes by subway, if he lives, for example, close to a subway station, maybe he doesn’t need a car, why should I tell him to get an extra car”, says Radu Mihaiu.

Why does Mihaiu think that the solution is not the QR code, but “non-nominal places”

“But why don’t you make a QR code verification system, for example, to be stuck on the car and you can check if the person who parks there has the right to park?”, HotNews.ro asked mayor Mihaiu.

“This is the question. If, let’s say that at 12:00 I go to a place in Colentina where I find a car that does not have a QR code, on a place where there should be a QR code. Maybe it’s the friend, maybe it’s the neighbor, maybe the man is away at work. What I do? Do you fine the person who parked and doesn’t have a QR code? I don’t know, I don’t think it’s normal.”

The mayor believes that there is another solution.

“The solution exists and the solution is applied in all European capitals. The solution is non-nominal parking spaces, such as the blue parking lots in the center of Bucharest, which should be extended, from my point of view, throughout Bucharest. I had a discussion in this regard with the Mayor General at the end of last year”, concluded the Mayor of Sector 2.