It is ridiculous for the mayor to ask Sofia residents to give him expert solutions in transport, which he and his team are obliged to find and propose. This was stated by Ivan Takov, chairman of the Standing Committee on Transport and Road Safety and of the group of the Local Coalition "BSP for Bulgaria" in the Municipal Council. He made the comment regarding a report by Vasil Terziev and the chairman of the Municipal Council Tsvetomir Petrov, together with municipal councilors from the PP-DB group, on changes related to parking in the city. The proposal for the changes comes based on a survey conducted among 22,230 people in Sofia.
"This is some kind of absurdity. I really don't believe that it is possible for a reasonable person to make a difficult expert decision that affects multiple systems and requires specialized analyses, through a "large-scale consultation" of citizens. This is not serious," commented Ivan Takov. He recalled that almost the same proposals, but collected in a report by the "Save Sofia" group, were withdrawn. "For me, this survey aims to imitate the activities of the mayor and his administration and to be a cover for their impotence and inability to find the right solutions. Parking is already a truly gigantic problem for the city. And adequate decisions are needed, made on the basis of in-depth expert analyses. It seems to me that with this survey the mayor is trying to use the citizens to justify his desire to raise parking prices in the city. In short - he is once again transferring his own responsibility to someone else. This time for Sofia residents.
Ivan Takov is categorical that the group of the Local Coalition "BSP for Bulgaria" cannot support piecemeal proposals, taken without the necessary expert analyses. "The solution to the parking problem is very closely related to two other very important issues that still have no answer - convenient and accessible public transport, which would be preferred by Sofia residents for movement, and the construction of parking lots and the regulation of the stay, parking and parking of cars, commented Ivan Takov. - The consultation of citizens is a very good thing that we have always admired. But expert decisions must be made by experts who are elected by these same citizens to represent them in the Sofia Municipality. The sanction regime for people, which is the increase in the price for "blue" and "green" zones, is not a solution. That is why the report by Terziev, Petrov and PP-DB cannot be considered a parking reform that would solve this huge problem of the city. On the contrary - this is nothing more than a desire to once again dig deep into the pockets of Sofia residents.