Even though “Park and Drive” was included as a project in 2011 in the first plan for sustainable transport of the City of Skopje, the concept to this day has not been introduced to our metropolis. The project by which cities in developed countries solve the problem of traffic congestion in their city centres has not been carried out in the past 8 years by the city authorities.
Nikola Krstanovski, a public transport professor at the Technical Faculty in Bitola, points out that his colleagues from the university proposed this project for the construction of transport terminals at the entrance points in Skopje. The free parking of these places would be supplemented by the introduction of new bus lines or rental bicycles, which would enable citizens from other cities to travel to the centre of Skopje or other settlements.
Professor Krstanoski points out that in 2012, a study was conducted by IDOM, which showed that 30,000 cars enter the capital each working day. These additional vehicles increase traffic congestion and there is a lack of parking spaces in the city.
– The first condition for the introduction of this concept is the reorganization of the network of public transport lines and the construction of such transport terminals at the peripheral points of entry in the city, – Professor Nikola Krstanovski tells “Meta”.
JP “City Parking” say that they have not yet decided which company will be assigned to the “Park and Drive” project and did not send more information to the City of Skopje.
The Park and Drive Project was first introduced in the UK in the 60s in the last century. To date, this idea has been extended to major cities, with free parking at the entrance of the cities combined not only with bus lines, but also with railway stations and bicycle rental systems.
