Congested Bucharest

Guest in this week's episode of Romanian Dispatch is civil engineer and urban planner Michael Horodniceanu. Romanian-born Horodniceanu was traffic commissioner of New York City and is an advisor to the recently elected mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan. After Moscow, Istanbul and Kyiv, his city has the most traffic in Europe. Residents of Romania's capital are in traffic 48% more than they need to, or 218 hours a year. To improve traffic flow in Bucharest in the short term, Horodniceau advocates for low-cost measures like a clearer parking policy and the use of artificial intelligence.