In light blue is the current blue zone, and in light blue is the extended one.
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The blue zone in Sofia should be expanded at the expense of the green one, proposes the deputy chairman of the transport commission of the municipal council Zafir Zarkov from GERB. The parking spaces in the blue zone are now 5,000, and will become 13,000. In the green zone there are now 28,000 and will be reduced to 21,000, said Rumyana Milova from the Center for Urban Mobility.
Now the blue zone is next to Dondukov Blvd., and the proposal is for it to reach Slivnitsa Blvd. and Danail Nikolaev Blvd., and to the east to Evlogi and Hristo Georgievi Blvd. To the west it is now next to Hristo Botev Blvd., and will expand to Opalchenska Street.
The working hours should also be increased to 20.00, instead of 19.30, as it is now. The goal is for those living in these areas to have more chances to park, Zarkov explained.
The green zone is increasing in the space between Zone B-19 in the Vazrazhdane district next to Konstantin Velichkov Blvd. and the intersection with Ivan Geshov Blvd. Thus, there will be 550 new paid places in the green zone, Milova specified.
Zarkov’s proposal calls for the free business subscription of up to three parking spaces per institution to be dropped altogether. The institutions should have the right to a maximum of five paid parking spaces, and the vacated spaces will be for paid parking by the citizens.
“The proposed changes will eliminate the privileges for free use of parking lots by various state, cultural, municipal and other institutions,” Zarkov said.
Boris Bonev from Save Sofia, given last year, had a similar idea for the official subscription, but it was bound by reforms in the reporting of revenues from paid zones and was not approved by the municipal council.
In the pedestrian zones in the center of Sofia to introduce a regime for loading and unloading, which will be 30 minutes and will be paid at half price from the blue or green zone. Residents who have an annual vignette sticker will be allowed 30 free parking minutes twice a day.
The proposal is to be approved in the commissions of the municipal council and to be voted on at a session.
“The idea is to reduce car pressure in the city center. This is the main task of the blue zone,” Zarkov said.
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