Urban Public Transportation System Changes, in Post Communist Period in Iasi Municipality

Abstract

Urban public transportation system changes, in post-communist period in Iasi municipality. During the transition period, from the communist era to the market economy, the Romanian cities suffered important mutations such as deindustrialization, urban sprawl, changes in functional areas, the increase in cars number, etc. These changes required a quick adaptation of the urban public transportation system. This paper tries to reveal if these changes happened in the proper manner, taking into consideration the fact that Iasi city is one of the most polluted in the country. In the communist era, the city of Iasi has experienced a great development, becoming an important industrial, educational and medical center. The transportation system is the effect of the historical context of overall urban development of the city of Iasi. From the public transport point of view, adaptation to external transformations in the post-communist era is difficult, because suburbanization is not sustained by the development of an adequate transport infrastructure, which means for the home owners higher transportation costs and a higher motorization degree. The lack of public transport routes from these areas leads to higher traffic values in the city which remains the main polarization center of the region. Nowadays there is a series of major deficiencies in the level of polarization of the transport network in the urban space. Adapting supply to demand transport consists of qualitative restructuring of public transport.