Cars don't fit in the city: are Klaipėda drivers to blame?

One of the goals of the city’s ruling coalition is to create 10,000 new parking spaces in Klaipėda, a large part of this goal has already been achieved, but the question arises whether all of them will actually be used as intended.

A Klaipėda resident, Viktoras, contacted VE.lt and shared photos of newly created parking spaces near Jūrininkų Avenue.

The photos show a fairly simple problem – drivers do not always manage to park their cars so that there is space left next to them for another. Of course, the lines have not yet been drawn, but they are also missing in many apartment courtyards, and many drivers never learn to allocate the 2.5-meter width assigned to a parking space and to park close to the edge of the sidewalk.

It may seem like a small detail. However, such a detail significantly reduces the actual number of parking spaces. Instead of a conditional 100, only 80 or even fewer remain.

In a parking lot where theoretically five cars should fit, residents of the southern part of the city sometimes manage to park only four, and sometimes just three cars.

So part of the newly created spaces is lost not due to poor design, but for a simple reason – some drivers still find it difficult to park their cars neatly.

Here lies a kind of paradox. The municipality invests millions to create more space for cars in Klaipėda, but the final result is determined not only by builders or designers. Drivers themselves also play a particularly important role.

Hundreds of new spaces

We remind you that one of the largest parking space projects near Jūrininkų Avenue in Klaipėda has already been completed.

In a section more than 800 meters long, 450 new parking spaces were created. The work was carried out over ten months by the company “Klaistvita,” and the project was worth about 1.31 million euros.

Nearby, at the intersection of Mogiliovo and Lūžų streets, a new parking lot with 102 spaces was also created. The work there cost about 440 thousand euros.

Thus, drivers in the southern part of the city have been given quite a lot of additional space. It remains to be hoped that cars will be parked in this space as efficiently as it was designed.

Lines will be drawn

The news portal VE.lt found out that the municipality will indeed lend a hand and draw lines in the new parking lot for those who cannot park properly. Inga Kubilienė, head of the City Maintenance Department of Klaipėda City Municipality, promised that this will be done this year.

According to her, although the parking space project on Jūrininkų Avenue already looks visually complete, the contractor still has additional work to do – to renew the sidewalk connections.

“After the work is fully completed, the municipality plans to draw the lines,” informed I. Kubilienė.

So for now, drivers will have to wait a little longer until the new spaces are clearly marked.

However, drivers who know how to park their cars could already teach those who are not so skilled and cannot park their cars neatly.

Translated from