Petr Michal: Politicians and their approach to transportation? They are turning Prague into a virtual environment.

This week, we have municipal elections, and in Prague, as always, a lot is at stake. After all, Prague’s politics have long had the power to influence events at the national level. Besides that, in Prague, it is primarily about addressing long-term problems, which the debate before the elections can help with.

The survey conducted by STEM/MARK for the Prague Chamber of Commerce in August this year on the topic of the Future of Prague revealed what currently troubles Prague’s residents the most. According to the survey, which was carried out on a representative sample of 505 respondents, these issues are “incompetence, chaos, failure to address important matters” and also “traffic problems and congestion.” More than 45 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with the current political situation at the city hall, compared to roughly 38 percent who are satisfied. Overall, negative assessments prevail. This is not a very flattering evaluation for the current Prague coalition.

Prague’s residents want to see improvements in transportation as soon as possible and to be able to travel across the city without problems. Besides that, they demand new parking spaces, not only in the city center but also on its outskirts. These issues emerged from the survey as the most problematic topics, which the city hall should focus on resolving. More than 40 percent of respondents mentioned car traffic and parking in this context.

The priority for the political forces aiming to govern the capital city for the next four years must therefore definitely be the completion of the City Ring Road and the construction of the missing sections of the Prague Ring Road, especially between highways D1 and D11, to alleviate traffic throughout the entire southeast of Prague, including the South Link. Not only the Prague Ring Road but also the City Ring Road are used not only by Prague residents but also by people from all over the country, so it is necessary that the state contributes to financing both projects.

The incompetence, chaos, and failure to address important matters mentioned in the survey also refer, among other things, to the lack of coordination of road closures in the city. It is important that the repair and construction processes proceed continuously and that this ongoing work is reliable. Often, it may seem that nothing is happening for a long time and then suddenly roads are dug up everywhere within a few years, but this is not actually the case.

The mentioned chaos is further related to the shortage of parking spaces, which is also caused by the low number of parking garages near metro stations on the outskirts of Prague. This is precisely where people commuting to the capital for work should leave their cars and continue by public transport so that the city center roads do not get more congested. The city’s political representation should therefore significantly accelerate the construction of such facilities.

At the very bottom of the list of issues troubling Prague residents are topics like “smart city” or visual pollution, which are to some extent priorities of the current city administration, which has also set expanding pedestrian zones as one of its main goals. Given its character, Prague has one of the largest pedestrian zone areas in the world. Pedestrian zones are great, but everyone knows that where they exist, the structure of services and shops changes. Customers disappear first, then employees, residents, and to some extent, dead zones emerge. The area around Franz Kafka Square can serve as an example. Today, there are only restaurants under strong pressure, a few small services, and then nothing else.

It is time to send a message to people – come live back in the city center. Politicians should think about the sense of various transport measures, including pedestrian zones. The city is partly turning into a virtual environment because of this. Let’s regulate traffic through the city center once sufficient alternatives exist, primarily the aforementioned City Ring Road.

Author: Petr Michal

Written for E15 newspaper.