It’s ten days until the big parking revolution in Bucharest, an event that is supposed to affect hundreds of thousands of drivers by changing their behavior drastically, and I’ll be honest with you that I haven’t understood a single part of what it’s all about, although I’m curious watched the topic. Not that a revolution isn’t needed: if you ask me, we haven’t had to impose strict restrictions on parking or even driving in the center of the capital for years. The laziness and political cowardice of previous administrations is beyond comment and I don’t know why it was necessary to wait until the middle of the current mandate to do anything; but, passions. The problem is, as I said, I don’t understand what is being done now.

1. Most of the high-profile headlines, echoing the statements of Mayor Nikusor Dan and Deputy Mayor Stelian Bouduveanu, report the introduction of a “mandatory fee from August 15”. Then they begin long explanations about the parking spaces marked in blue, that is, those managed by PMB. However, at the places marked by the tariff, payment remained mandatory. I understand that they will multiply, but gradually, over months and years, and not suddenly on August 15. So what exactly is changing?

2. Somehow PMB wants to tell us that from August 15, parking will be paid not only in places marked in blue, but everywhere in zone 0, when cars are left on the road? What are the limits of tariff zones changing? Or does he just mean that the current fares for the blue seats have increased significantly? The first option does not seem feasible to me, at least not immediately, but only through a well-prepared process and distributed over time. The last option doesn’t work because I don’t see any major changes in rates; and as for the second option, I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. And in general, it is ridiculous to set the world on fire with a superannouncement that in two weeks there will be a big reform, and then to explain that you have not decided how much the tariff will be, nor which zone 0, the issues are still being discussed, wait at the reception for us to inform you of the details, maybe for two days before the deadline.

3. But perhaps both heads of the PMB wanted to announce not a change in zoning or tariff, but a stricter application of the current legislation. Some of their remarks were in the following sense: the resolution has been in effect for an unknown time, but now we are actually implementing it without exceptions, etc. Well, maybe, but they should have understood this from the second, so that we do not have 90% of the headlines in the press in the form of “from August 15 parking will be mandatory…” etc. confusion of the population, who knows that until now it was mandatory. The announcement should have been: “Here we have bought tens of thousands of wheel and windshield locks for the first time, we have signed contracts with 20 new lifting companies, and we have the capacity to transport and store 3,000 cars a day of these improperly parked and confusing traffic.” With footage of the mayor in addition to this new logistics of impressive proportions, explanations of warning procedures, interviews with lifters to know how it will be done and reports on the places where penalized cars will be taken. That’s what happens when you start an operation of this size A storm in the desert, which will quite predictably turn the world upside down and cause an early boil: it’s in your best interest as an authority to explain as best you can to lessen the initial shock. I didn’t see any of that.

4. Importantly, I’m not clear if all the above talking about new rates or more aggressive cancellation/blocking applies to (a) PMB parking spaces marked in blue; (b) usually on high streets managed by PMB at the centre; (c) in all small streets in the centre, including those under the management of Departments. I mean the point with the lock only hits you if you’re in a blue spot and you haven’t paid for it, but not if you’ve parked 50 meters away under a no sign and not on blue paint? In the latter case, it’s clear what will happen, right? And if everything is blocked/raised, then back to point 3 above: did they somehow indirectly want to inform us that from August 15th there will be a mass lift of all illegally parked cars in the center of Bucharest, regardless of the street? I wish them success and admire the fact that they arranged the logistics of such a monumental military operation in conditions of maximum secrecy so that no one would find out.

5. And the cars standing on the sidewalks, because I only heard about it in passing? Is it locked/rising or not? If not, let’s go back to point 4: I think you understand what will happen. If August 15 begins the Great Removal of Cars from the Sidewalks, it is unlikely that it was the subject of loud headlines and discussions, and not incomprehensible details about what will happen to unknown subscriptions of residents in parking lots, things that exist even now. Again, I admire the fact that PMB worked out the lift logistics, knowing that it is often more difficult to get a car off the pavement between tanks than it is to remove it from the roadway. But there are also procedural aspects: I recall a laugh-trick conversation published last year, which was also picked up by the media, in which a traffic officer told me that he couldn’t do anything about cars parked on the pavement because “he doesn’t have an approved camera”, we we are 100 meters from the car depicted by me in the link (of course, with a non-homologated mobile). In other words, since the authority does not have a tool, the law allows fines only “in flagrante delicto”, that is, for the short moment when a person opens the door and until he starts moving. Question for PMB, sectors and traffic police: in the meantime, the law has changed and the body has received a tool, can it now intervene on the sidewalks? Local police officers’ smartphones have been ‘approved’, are we ok? Read more at Contributors.ro