Electric cars and hybrids can be parked for free in public parking lots managed by the city hall. However, last month at the municipal level, they discussed whether this object should be dismantled. In the end it was decided that it was better not to encourage the purchase of less polluting vehicles. The only problem: in Bucharest, the number of hybrid and electric cars has increased significantly in recent years and is almost 4 times the number of parking spaces in the capital city hall. Thus, if everyone uses this opportunity, there is no room left for the rest.

Since 2016, electric and hybrid cars registered in Bucharest can park for free in parking lots managed by the capital city hall. That is, they do not pay a parking fee from 2.5 to 10 lei/hour, depending on the area. In October, the vice-mayor Stelian Buduveanu, responsible for the city’s mobility, presented a draft decision of the General Council for public discussion, according to which only electric vehicles will be able to use this free service.

During the public discussion of the project, hundreds of citizens appealed to the capital city hall with a request not to cancel the free hybrid cars.

The other day, Stelian Buduveanu said that he would offer to keep the reward.

“We decided to keep the free charge for hybrid cars as well. Public institutions will pay for a parking space in Bucharest. No privileges, as in the city hall,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

The city hall currently manages approximately 17,000 parking spaces, Stelian Buyduveanu told HotNews.ro. This is not counting the more than 2,000 places that are provided free of charge to various government agencies.

According to data provided by the Office of Driving Licenses and Vehicle Registration in Bucharest, there are more than 65,000 hybrid and electric cars:

• Electric vehicles registered in the municipality of Bucharest – 10,012
• Hybrid vehicles registered in Bucharest – 55,692;

Deputy Mayor Buyduveanu says new parking spaces are being painted every day and by the end of next year there will be 30,000, but even then there are still not enough.

We also asked other political groups in the General Council if they would vote to keep free parking for hybrid cars.

USR Group says it supports it for free.

“We have been committed to maintaining this reward for hybrid cars from the beginning. We also discussed in the city hall to save this facility precisely because all the plans of the European Union say that any small help in the sense that it helps to reduce the carbon footprint is recommended. Hybrids or electrics help, there is also research to meet these standards by 2030. There are many cars, but Romania has taken up some European projects, we are part of these projects. Do you want us to step into the breach?” said Nicorel Nicorescu, USR’s general counsel.

He says that if we don’t encourage this greener territory, we won’t be able to meet the targets set by the European Union.

The PSD group says this is a Heirupist event, but they will vote to keep the reward.

“We have reached out to the RAR to let us know exactly how many there are. I told Mr. Boudouvean and he shrugged. We’ll vote to keep it free, but we’ll hold a press conference before we tell them they won’t have anywhere to park. I’m just making it happen,” Aurelian Bedulescu, general counsel of the PSD, told HotNews.ro.

Thus, at this point, if a bill to eliminate tipping for hybrid cars were put to a vote, it would not pass.

In parallel with this project, Stelian Buyduveanu also submitted another project aimed at dcancellation of differentiated tariffs by zone, from 2.5 to 10 lei, and application of a single tariff of 5 lei for all public parking lots of the city under the administration.

How many cars are there in Bucharest and Ilfov

The number of cars registered in Bucharest and Ilfov has increased by more than 560,000 in the last 10 years, approaching 1.8 million, according to data provided by the Bucharest Prefecture and the Office of Driving Licenses and Vehicle Registration at HotNews.ro. Actually in Bucharest, the growth was almost 30%. The growth in Ilfov is impressive, the number of registered cars has almost tripled.

In the last 5 years, the number of cars registered in Bucharest and Ilfov has increased by more than 320,000, according to the response sent by the Office of the Driving License and Vehicle Registration Regime.

Thus, in 2017, 1,296,607 vehicles were registered in Bucharest, and 166,467 in Ilfov, a total of 1,463,071. In 2022, the number increased to 1,529,221 vehicles in Bucharest, and to 256,007 in Ilfov, a total of 1 785,228 cars.

Thus, the number of cars increased by more than 232,000 in Bucharest, and by almost 90,000 in Ilfov. In total, the increase is more than 320,000 cars.

Compared to 2011, the growth is huge. According to data provided in 2016 by the Bucharest Prefecture, in 2011 there were 1,224,816 vehicles registered in Bucharest and Ilfov. At the end of 2011, 1,131,807 cars were registered in Bucharest alone. At the end of 2011, 93,009 cars were registered in Ilfov.

More details here.

What happened to the “parking revolution”

The “parking revolution”, launched by the capital’s city hall on August 15, stalled a few streets from the central part.

Despite the fact that more than 2,000 fines and almost 6,000 summonses were issued to those who parked, including on the sidewalk, in the first 3 months from the start of the campaign, the cars reappeared as soon as the local police left the area. This was only successful where bollards were placed and cars could no longer occupy the space intended for pedestrians.

At the same time, the capital’s mayor’s office approved thousands of new parking spaces, and by the end of next year promises to arrange them on 850 streets. Posts will also be placed on these roads, Deputy Mayor Stelian Buyduveanu told HotNews.ro. In order to speed up the pace, marking and bollards will be taken care of not only by the street administration, but by 7 structures of the capital city hall.