Moldovan capital to first ever have urban mobility plan

Chisinau, 29 January /MOLDPRES/ - Chisinau will have an urban mobility plan for the first time ever. This is a document of strategic planning in the development of the road and pedestrian infrastructure, public and private transport, organization of parkings and creation of the infrastructure for bicycles.   

The document will be developed by the Chisinau city hall, with the support of the project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Sustainable Green Cities, financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

In the process of elaborating the plan, the Chisinau residents will be invited to public discussions on subjects of urban development, such as: public and private transport, organization of parkings, road, pedestrian infrastructure and infrastructure for bicycles, state of urban public areas, urban accessibility and security. The first session of discussions will be held on 30 January.

At the launch of the initiative today, the Chisinau acting general mayor, Ruslan Codreanu, said that the lack of a network of public transport’s development, as well as of alternative solutions of mobility prompt people to use their own vehicles to move in the city. As a result, traffic jams appear, especially in the capital’s historical zone.   

„Chisinau is hit by chronic traffic jams, the road infrastructure is over-demanded, the public areas and sidewalks degrade because of illegal parkings and the level of air’s pollution constantly grows. It is necessary to rethink the transport network, so that we can offer to the Chisinau residents safe and comfortable alternatives of movement, either with the public, private transport or by bicycle or by foot,” a UNDP specialist in programmes on environment and energy, Inga Podoroghin, said.  

In 2017, there were more than 280,000 vehicles in the Chisinau city, - by 30 per cent more than in 2009, according to the Registru (Register) data from 2017.

The project, Sustainable Green Cities, implemented in 2018-2022, has an overall budget of 2.72 million dollars, of which 2.64 million dollars is provided by GEF and 80,000 dollars – by UNDP Moldova.