The Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR) is behind the installation of a rest area at the intersection of Americká and Záhřebská streets. After an agreement with the management of Prague 2, he occupied the square with a roundabout for a month and a half until the end of September. A temporary resting place in the form of several dozen chairs, tables and flower pots is to find out how the space could be used permanently in the future.
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“Our city district monitors the whole project and gathers the opinions of citizens. The aim of the whole project, on our part, is to get the opinion of citizens on whether to convert this space into a permanent square with the possibility of passing vehicles and otherwise keep the state of the roundabout, “explained the representatives of Prague 2 City Hall on social networks.
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However, the new use of the square evoked very different feelings among citizens. On the one hand, people will find shade under the mature trees and the pleasant atmosphere is complemented by a fountain in the middle of the roundabout. “There is next to the wine bar, sitting by the water, such relaxation. I really like it, “a woman passing by confides in the survey.
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The new resting place is located directly at the fountain at the roundabout in Vinohrady
But the drivers are not particularly enthusiastic. Due to the creation of a place for rest, the city has partially closed the roundabout and in both directions it is now possible to turn left from the crossroads only. The difficult traffic situation is not facilitated even by the streets in the vicinity – the one-way streets themselves.
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“Sitting is definitely beneficial, but the transport is not solved here. If I’m going from Koperníkova Street, I now have to go around the mountain almost to Prague 10, “says the woman who came to the place to sit with her son in the survey. “Getting to the end of Zagreb is now a 10-minute detour,” Lucie Balcárková complains on Facebook.
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“If you try to find this deadline on the internet maps, you won’t find it there. This shows that the intersection is still passable. So a person who is not from Prague does not have a chance to confess here, “explains a man passing by.
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Due to a new place to rest, the city canceled the roundabout
Five minutes of detour instead of one turn
According to the navigation, we decided to test the difficulty of transport on our own skin with the Novinky camera. However, it does not really count on the closure of the roundabout, so when the driver turns elsewhere according to the signs on the spot, the navigation will start to return him to the same place in the vicious circle.
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The driver has to find the right way himself and can wander in the tangle of one-way streets in Vinohrady for several minutes. For example, if a driver wants to get from Americká Street to Záhřebská Street, he must now make seven turns instead of turning right at the roundabout. Newly, the shortest possible route takes almost 5 minutes.
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Instead of one turn at a roundabout, the driver now has to go around the complexity
Another complication, according to locals, is the cancellation of several parking spaces where drivers could previously stop along the entire square. Only half of them are now accessible, and employees of nearby companies, for example, find it so difficult to find a place to stop.
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“For example, when a supply van needs to come to us, it has no way. Because of this, some daredevils pushed the flower pots away so that they could stop and at the same time not block the traffic, “explains the waitress from the restaurant in the square.
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“Closing the passage through the square is conceived only as a temporary measure to verify the functioning of traffic in the locality. We understand that the change can be uncomfortable, but otherwise we are not able to reliably determine whether transport in the area could work differently and what scenarios can be realistically considered in the locality, “explains IPR on its website.
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Tables and chairs in Malvazinky
IPR came up with the same idea of a resting place in Malvazinky, Prague, where he occupied chairs and tables in front of a busy intersection where six streets intersect. Even there, however, the place was not ideally designed, because without shade and greenery, sitting in the summer heat on hot concrete at a large intersection was unpleasant. A survey conducted by the Novinky staff on the spot in mid-August confirmed that the resting place was not used at all.
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Sitting on the Smetana embankment also remains similarly depopulated, which aroused passionate reactions, especially at the beginning of summer. At that time, the municipality closed the embankment between the intersection with Národní třída and Divadelní Street for cars from the direction from Karlovy Lázně to the National Theater, so that restaurant gardens could be established on the spot.
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