Kiev Struggles With Rising Car Ownership

"Driving or riding down any Kyiv city street today, you have no trouble realizing that the pre-independence auto census of about 150,000 has now grown to upwards of one million. In fact, there are times when you're sitting at some gridlocked corner or square with nothing but cars, trucks, buses and marshrutkas as far as the eye can see that you could easily believe that most of this huge number of vehicles is converging on your location."

"The burgeoning auto population has created headaches for Kyiv City Administration officials, with cars far outnumbering available places to park them. The city is mulling plans this year to build some 26 parking garages and has made parking lots a requirement for new residential construction projects."

"[But] auto driving is neither a privilege nor a right any more than riding in an elevator is. It is a lifestyle...Shifting public investment from a dilapidated yet still quite robust public transportation system to the construction of underground parking garages and cloverleaf interchanges is less a question of civil engineering than social engineering. Raising fares or curtailing service is an awkward and divisive proposition to present to the public."