Krakow will have carsharing
Numerous cities in Poland has city bike rental, but not a single place decided to offer its citizens and visitors carsharing service. It appear that the title of the trailblazer will soon go to Kraków. It has been announced the city council is going to carry out technical consultations on this matter.
The city wants to set up 70 car rental stations with two to five vehicles to rent at each terminal, accompanies with a fuelling station. All cars are to have electric motors, which is an interesting choice taking into consideration electric cars are not very popular in Poland and Polish citizens do not enjoy any government incentives.
The reason for that may be a big air quality problem that Kraków has been struggling with for a number of years. Electric cars do not produce air pollutants and therefore are regarded as more environmentally-friendly that standard petrol-fuelled cars.
The total number of vehicles available to rent is to be 100. These will include minivans, small city cars, and 50 A-class four-door vehicles. Users will enjoy certain perks: they will be allowed to use bus lanes and entered access areas where vehicle access is limited and be entitled to free parking in designated places.
Carsharing is offered in many countries in Western Europe, for example Belgium, Germany and France. It allows its users to enjoy the perks of having a car without the need to cover the associated maintenance costs. It is a perfect solution for people who drive a car occasionally.
Kraków’s public transport consist of buses and trams as well as a bike rental service with 300 bicycles and 34 rental stations. The bicycle rental scheme was launched in 2008. The city has ambitious plans to expand the network of terminals to 150, and the increase the number of bikes up to 1500.
This is not the only big infrastructure projects city officials have in mind. A new terminal was recently opened at Kraków Airport, Poland’s second biggest airport. Its staff will soon be able to service up to 8 million passengers a year. The investment cost over 360 thousand million PLN. Works on the terminal still continue.
But this is not all. Kraków Airport will have a new runway by 2021. The investment has already been approved by the airport’s management. The new investment will allow the facility to open new international flight routes, including those across the Atlantic.
