Access restriction policies

Summary

The traffic volume in Craiova has increased in recent years and the trend is still growing. Craiova intends to regulate access to the city in order to provide better mobility and comfort for people.

Implementing sustainable mobility

The measure aims to develop and integrate a regulation system related to the access in the central area of the city. Access restriction is a new concept in urban traffic management. The implementation of an access restricted area in the city centre was initiated and funded by Craiova at weekends using mobile barriers. This initiative is part of a larger project through which the municipality will gradually close the centre permanently, including the historical city and will create a pedestrian zone. 

The Municipality decided to introduce the measures gradually so that people get used to and accept this change. Access restrictions will not affect certain sectors, such as residents in the area, emergency and special services, officials and pedestrians. The measure will have a special focus on dissemination activities and information campaigns with the aim of raising awareness of its benefits. The access restriction system will be introduced during a pilot phase. The level of CO2 emissions and the flow of passengers in the area will be assessed in the evaluation stage of the measure.

Progress

As part of CIVITAS, Craiova followed up on its existing restriction measure in the city centre by closing another area in the city centre. This area will then be connected to the historic centre which is the final step in the downtown closing action.  Two decisions related to the measure were made by the city mayor. The first forbid access from 22.00 to 6.00 in the weekend pedestrian zone and the second extended the restrictions to 20.00 and 6.00. The Municipality also used different events to close the downtown area, such as European Mobility Week and the Craiova’s Days celebration.

As part of the planning and design of the measure a study was carried out on traffic and the flow of passengers. This was followed up by the development of city plans and a transport strategy which took studies on parking places and tariffs, the design of new routes for minibuses and the design of a new signs system into account.

The evaluation activities including the following indicators:

• Levels of noise and air pollution; and
• Number of pedestrians.

The city also developed municipality and mass media presentations, held meetings with the mass media, municipality and municipal police representatives and ran four Information Days targetting the general public.

Outcomes

Craiova expects that the measure will:

• Create a pollutant free zone;
• Give free access for pedestrians;
• Improve the configuration of the public transport service and network.