Although the traffic in the metropolitan area of the capital is becoming more and more crowded, being, thus, among the main sources of pollution in our region, more and more initiatives to improve this situation are being implemented in our region.
In this regard, we can mention the Bucharest City Hall project meant to develop the infrastructure of bicycle lanes and to promote the use of this sustainable means of transport in the central area of the municipality. Thus, at the end of the project implementation, the total length of the bike lanes in Bucharest will reach 100 km, with a total of 18 bicycle rental centers, a maximum of 78 free public parking lots and a monitoring and coordination center for this type of transport. The total value of the project is about 10 million euro and lasts for a period of 18 months.
Moreover, the clear trend in the region, confirmed by the statistical data-available for the first 9 months of the year, highlights a significant increase in market share for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, currently reaching 12% - close 2 times higher than the same period last year. Divided into categories, the increase in the number of new acquisitions of EVs doubled compared to the same period last year, while that of hybrid plugins had an increase of 233.7%. At the same time, the number of charging stations in the region continued to increase, recently being newly installed in the region, by a single supplier - Enel X Romania, a number of 64 charging points for electric vehicles.
In the same context, in Bucharest, the car sharing platform market is more and more competitive and, thus, becomes more and more attractive in terms of reasonable costs. The applications that promote this type of service are starting to fight in the offers and to make available to the customers the newest and most technologically advanced cars at prices comparable to the use of passenger transport services. There are more and more providers of such services through this type of platforms and the competition between them brings only good things for end users, either through the availability of a fleet of new and varied cars, or through the accessibility offered by the low prices.
The presented initiatives represent a testimony that demonstrates the development of this sector in our region, having at the same time the role of promoting the need to shift towards a more sustainable mobility.