Piata Unirii.
Insert your own title, words like nesimtit may be used
Previous post: The Romanian Health Service: In our experience, perfectly satisfactory
Next post: Going ethnic in Brasov
Capital living in Bucharest, Romania
-
Latest Posts
- Arc de Triumf to get a refit
- Romania’s biggest cities
- Photo Opportunity
- A quick word on Romania’s (proposed) new prime minister, Mihai Razvan Ungureanu
- What happens now?
- Where did all the Romanians go?
- Bucharest In Your Pocket 75
- Battle of the Mici: La Cocosatul vs La Gil
- Nastase Seven Houses
- Playing the Moldovans at Tennis: The Movie
Recent Comments
- Geronimo on Arc de Triumf to get a refit
- Parmalat on Arc de Triumf to get a refit
- Parmalat on Arc de Triumf to get a refit
- Geronimo on Arc de Triumf to get a refit
- Mr Rearguard on Arc de Triumf to get a refit
- Davin Ellicson on Arc de Triumf to get a refit
- Davin Ellicson on Arc de Triumf to get a refit
- Geronimo on Arc de Triumf to get a refit
- Craig Turp on The Bucharest Metro Challenge: We’ve Been Beaten
- Razvan Tebeica on The Bucharest Metro Challenge: We’ve Been Beaten
Most Commented Posts
- How many? (223)
- Gica Contra moves on to Hala Matache (131)
- Sightseeing in Bucharest: What should be labelled essential? (128)
- Parts of Bucharest we’ve never been to No. 1: Bucurestii Noi (69)
- Nasty Foreigners Hate Romania: More Proof Emerges (67)
- McDonalds Romania: Not the root of all evil (56)
- Bucharest public transport in days gone by (54)
- Gara de Nord: There’s more to it than onions and Carpati (49)
- Around Bucharest on a bike: Cicloteque gets it right. Nearly (48)
- Political Animals (46)
Bucharest Life @ Twitter
-
Search Bucharest Life
Bucharest Life @ Instagram
Archives
Categories
Bucharest Links
Romania Links
We Read
Copyright Bucharest Life © 2007–2012
Array
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Glad to know you interpret effective law enforcement as a “stranglehold,” Davin. It’s why driving and parking make a lot more sense in the US than in Romania.
8 months per year Bucharest is either a too hot or a too cold place so people really can’t leave their cars home. That is to add over the parking space problem.
Sometimes I prefer to ride by taxi during daytime because my car is quite big and a pain in the ass when it comes to finding parking space but that is not a sollution for 1 million people.
The fact is that everyone parks how they can and the best they can do is to leave their phone numbers just in case they block other car.
However, Bucharest is still rather fine from that point of view compared to centre Paris (at least the way it was in 1998 … )
I used to leave funky notes in their windows. It’s usually people parking there every day because they work in the area, so after a few notes explaining how nesimtiti they are, they go somewhere else. It’s nothing compared to the number of nesimtiti, but still feels like taking action instead of complaining.
Nevertheless, the excuse most Bucharest drivers use, that there aren’t enough legal parking spaces, it still stands. Not for the above nesimtit, but still.
8 months per year Bucharest is either a too hot or a too cold place so people really can’t leave their cars home. That is to add over the parking space problem.
Sometimes I prefer to ride by taxi during daytime because my car is quite big and a pain in the ass when it comes to finding parking space but that is not a sollution for 1 million people.
The fact is that everyone parks how they can and the best they can do is to leave their phone numbers just in case they block other car.
However, Bucharest is still rather fine from that point of view compared to centre Paris (at least the way it was in 1998 … )
A new underground parking garage is being built under Piaţa Universităţii.
I am sure all is easy if you are Romanian. But as an American with a car here right now I never know where I can park legally. It always seems that there are simply no laws and I can park anywhere. The first time I drove up on a sidewalk I stood around the car for 5 minutes wondering if someone would say something. It’s just that I come from the US and in America you could never park on a sidewalk. The police would show up very fast.
They started to appear here too, only that it’s not the police but the towing companies…
I saw them in all sectors of Bucharest and when they tow you car you will have to go to their headquarters, outside of the city and pay a tax which goes (together with the regular fine from the police) around 1000 RON.
And if you fail to go the same day when they took your car, they will charge you almost $100 per day.
It’s crazy, PDL-style, they don’t know what else to invent to steal money from the people.
Great! Only last year I told my wife that it would be a fine business to start up a private towing company, you could make big $$$ wit it!
Sure, just make sure you get a PDL membership…
In Sectorul 1 of Bucharest for example, the towing company is owned by PDL deputy Silviu Prigoana.
You know what’s the problem? You may go with a bagfull of money right now, they won’t accept it because they will be suspicious. If you intend to get involved in business with the State here in Romania, you need to start with bribery from an elections campaign.
Until the next elections you may want to exercise by playing some Tropico 3
I just flew back from New York where I was for a few days and in the US the police have a stranglehold on the nation. People generally drive the speed limit, do not pass dangerously and do not park on sidewalks or bike paths. The simple reason is that if you get more than three speeding tickets you lose your license and the police keep a watchful eye on drivers everywhere–not just in town centers like here in Romania. Parking on a sidewalk or bike path is a surefire way to get your car towed within a half hour and hundreds of dollars fines. The fear that the police works: people drive conscientiously and you can walk down sidewalks. Somehow in Romania the police are not normal. A few weeks ago, a car passed me in a village in Transylvania at night and narrowly missed hitting the oncoming car which happened to be the village police(!) Although I was very happy to see the policeman quickly turn around and stage a pursuit of the speeding car with lights flashing and siren wailing, I was not so impressed when he also pulled me over. He kept me there for 20 minutes on the side road and when he finally let me go was about to walk away when I asked him why he had pulled me over too. He explained that he needed my license so I could act as a witness to the speeder. Since when does the police need a witness? They are the police, they have radar. If they clock a speeding car they have the authority to pull it over. Why did they need me? I so not think it is EU policy for the police to use innocent drivers as witnesses. In an accident, ok, but in conducting speed control!?
Of course they need a witness, otherwise the crazy driver will sue the police for abbuse. Not all police cars have radars.
I noticed that in the U.S. and generally speaking in the West there is a current of accepting self guilt or to say otherwise – pleading guilty.
With all consequences that derive from here: resignation, fines or even jail.
In Romania that doesn’t happen. Nobody is stupid enough to pleade guilty or to resign from a public position, even if they are guilty and they know it.
Instead, they will hang on and they will try to do everything to fool the system. And in most cases they do get away because of lack of evidence etc…
Did you see, two days ago German President Horst Koehler resigned for the simple fact that some of his words were misinterpreted by the press. Here Basescu won’t resign not even if the whole country will be burning.
So that’s why the police need a witness.
Parmalat:
Ok! Many thanks for that insight! I was indeed impressed that the police officer in this village nailed the guy who pass me going like 90 km in a 50km zone and the policeman was very nice and professional, I just had never encountered this before. In the US the police do not pull over a witness. But we are in Romania
The brave new Romania unfurls in front of your eyes, luring foreign tourists with its outstanding historical towns and infrastructure. etc. etc…. Oh God, sometimes I am so happy that the crisis is biting the bloody imbecile local nouveau riche class; hope that guy will thus limit his ambitions to just that stupid cojones car…