The two buffer parking lots, which will be closed from February 16 - at the "Vasil Levski Stadium" and "James Boucher" metro stations, are already located in the central part of the city, while similar parking lots are generally located on the outskirts of the city. "These territories (ed. note, where the two parking lots are located) have long changed their meaning. They are no longer entirely residential. There are many offices and multifunctional spaces there and, accordingly, when these parking lots were built, 15 years ago, they had a different idea. Now the situation is different," explained Deputy Mayor for Transport Viktor Chaushev, who gave a special briefing on the topic.
"We understand people's frustration, but we want to open these parking lots so that they are most useful to citizens. We have identified practices of abuse by circumventing the conditions for long-term parking, by using public transport cards to simulate a trip by public transport, which is not fair to others who use this service. That is why we are introducing this new regime so that these parking lots are accessible to everyone," Chaushev added.
Especially at "James Boucher", as a larger parking lot, the monthly subscription is being reduced and from March 1 it will already be 140 EUR per month, which is 6 EUR per day. Hourly parking will be like in the "Blue Zone" - 2 EUR per hour.
As of 2:00 p.m. on February 4, there were only 11 free spaces at the "Vasil Levski Stadium" metro station, and only 3 at "James Boucher". "These data show that the majority of users are trying to circumvent the regulation," concluded Chaushev.
