The final failure of the “People’s Garage” program was recorded the other day in the capital. Mikhail Blinkin, scientific director of the Research Institute of Transport and Roads, told reporters why the program, during which the Moscow administration tried to solve the problem of parking and permanent traffic jams, was initially doomed to failure.
The scientist pointed out that the program, during which the capital’s car owners were supposed to get access to legal parking, was carried out against the backdrop of virtually absent legislation on the issue. The expert reasonably drew attention to the fact that without legal regulation, drivers could park their cars almost anywhere and anytime. Moreover, this situation is typical not only for Moscow, but also for all other regions of the country – cars are parked in yards, right under the windows, etc. d. And, if there is a free place, very few people still resort to the service of buying a legal parking space for 350 thousand rubles.
Blinkin noted that the problem should first be worked out to the smallest detail, resorting to the experience of advanced countries – for example, in the States, parking is strictly regulated, and the ability to park a car in front of the house is sold and included in the cost of housing.
A recent scandal in the city administration became a sad confirmation of the scientist’s arguments about the ill-conceived nature of the program. The PF Investigative Committee opened a case against former Moscow officials, Alexander Levchenko and Konstantin Korolevskiy. They are accused of fraud on an especially large scale – Korolevskiy and Levchenko, who were responsible for the construction of “people’s garages”, stole over 90 million rubles from the city budget.
