Transport policy for Tbilisi announced:
What regulations are coming into play?
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Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze and his team have presented a new transport policy for the capital of Georgia that aims to offload road traffic and to improve the environmental conditions of Tbilisi.
Our priority is to develop public transport, to increase its usage and at the same time to reduce the number of private vehicles”, said Kaladze.
Here are the key directions of Tbilisi transport policy:
Buses
As announced today, the Tbilisi public bus fleet will be completely renewed, meaning that all existing yellow buses will be replaced with new ones, which will be absolutely environment friendly. For this reason, about 270 million GEL will be allocated from the central budget.
By 2020 the number of public buses will be increased to 900 units.
At the same time, bus lanes will be introduced on several mains streets of Tbilisi to alleviate traffic woes and promote road safety in the city. This way public transport will move faster and avoid traffic jams.
Minibuses
As of today, 2,000 minibuses serve Tbilisi passengers. The new transport policy will significantly reduce their number. Minibuses will only move in certain districts of Tbilisi to bring passengers to central transport hubs.
Metro
Currently, 43 trains serve passengers in Tbilisi. 14 new trains will be added to the Tbilisi Metro in 2018-2019. The goal is to minimise waiting time and make travel by metro more comfortable.
Taxi drivers
Tbilisi City Hall plans to introduce several regulations for taxi drivers starting in October 1, 2018 that will ensure the safety of passengers. From that day only licensed taxi drivers will move on the roads of Tbilisi. Meanwhile, from 2019 the first stage of regulations will come into play which will impose certain restrictions for right hand drive vehicles, two-door vehicles and different coloured vehicles.
A total of 200 smart cameras, which are able to detect license plate numbers, are fully operational in Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi starting from July 9, aiming to expose even minor traffic violations.
Tbilisi City Hall is planning to revise transport policy and impose certain restrictions on transport in order to improve the environmental conditions of the city.
A total of 36,394 vehicles have been inspected in Georgia as of June 20, 2018 and 75 percent of them (27,143 vehicles) have been found road-worthy, announces Georgia’s Ministry of Economy.
In a bid to curb speeding and reduce related accidents, the Government of Georgia has made it compulsory for buses, mini-buses and trucks operating in the country to have speed-limiting devices installed.
Almost 30 percent of registered vehicles in Georgia are diesel powered, announces Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The third stage of mandatory vehicle inspections will start in Georgia on October 1, 2018, announces the Georgian Ministry of Economy.
All taxis driving in the streets of Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi will be required to be white, following a decision made by Tbilisi City Hall today.
Passengers of buses moving in the streets of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi will have access to free Wi-Fi in 2019, announces Tbilisi Transport Company.
About 200 yellow minibuses and 100 buses failed inspections and are banned from use on roads, announces Transport Department of Tbilisi City Hall.
What’s in store for Tbilisi?
Georgia is launching the first stage of a green policy aiming to introduce eco-friendly transport in the country. The project ‘Green Policy – Eco-friendly Transport’ includes the development of an environmentally friendly and comfortable transport fleet.
After the full introduction of the new transport network in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi, the waiting time for public transport will be reduced to four minutes on average, while the capacity of buses increases 2.5 times, says deputy Tbilisi Mayor Irakli Khmaladze.