Chisinau will have for the first time a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. The document, a premiere for the municipality, will be developed by the Chisinau City Hall with the support of the UNDP Project "Moldova Green Sustainable Cities", funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The Urban Mobility Plan is a document of strategic planning to develop road and pedestrian infrastructure, public and private transport, the organization of parking facilities, and the creation of bicycle infrastructure.

"Chisinau can not develop without a strategic and sustainable planning considering the urban realities and citizens' needs. The urban mobility plan will help us efficiently invest in improving the city's transport system so that people will have equal access to transport, either public of private, and traveling thorough the city will be comfortable and safe", said Ruslan Codreanu, acting mayor general of Chisinau.

The lack of a developed public transport network, as well as alternative mobility solutions (cycling tracks, pedestrian infrastructure) make people increasingly use their personal cars to travel to the city.

In 2017, in Chisinau, there were 281,349 vehicles, among them were 198,735 private cars, 30% higher than in 2009, says data of Registry.  

"Chisinau suffers from chronic traffic jams, road infrastructure is overloaded, public spaces and sidewalks are degraded due to illegal parking, and the level of air pollution is steadily rising. It is necessary to rebuild the transport network so that we can offer safe and comfortable alternatives to Chisinau, whether public, private, bicycle or walking, "says Inga Podoroghin, Environmental and Energy Program Specialist, United Nations Development Program.

UNDP Moldova provides expertise to the City Hall in developing a Urban Mobility Plan to provide solutions for the balanced development of urban transport and promote sustainable mobility models that will generate economic and environmental benefits.

In the process of drawing up the plan, Chisinau residents will be invited to public discussions on urban development. The first public discussion session will take place on Wednesday, January 30, at the Urban Planning Workshop.

A team of international and national experts will work on drafting the document. The document will be developed in cooperation with the Municipal Design Institute "Chisinau-Proiect" and the German company A + S Transproiect.

The project "Moldova Sustainable Green Cities", implemented between 2018 and 2022, has a total budget of 2.72 million USD: 2.64 million USD are granted by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and 80.000 USD by UNDP Moldova.