Author: Denis Tahiri
During the months of July and August, in the editorial office of "Sinjalizo", there were not a few cases of complaints about parking payments in Saranda in the amount of 1000 Lek or 1500 Lek, where the tax coupon did not exist as a concept.
Andi, a 33-year-old who spent a week of vacation on the banks of the Ionian Sea, was one of the thousands of tourists, local and foreign, who visited Saranda this summer.
" I chose it because I hadn't been to the south of the country for many years, I was told that it was very developed and worth spending a few days of vacation, plus the access you have to both the beaches of the Riviera and Ksamil. But at the same time you also have the comforts of a city," he says.
But for the 33-year-old, Saranda, it did not turn out as he expected. Kilometers of traffic in the city and the lack of parking were the main reasons for leaving the holidays in half.
" The first night I came, I spent 2 hours in traffic, trying to find a parking space. I couldn't find one! I had to park my car in a car wash, which during the afternoon turned into a parking lot. For the whole night, I paid 1000 lek," he says, adding that due to the high price, he also asked for the tax coupon, but the answer was as arrogant as it was surprising: " We don't have one, brother, if you want a permit, you'll move."
The same situation was repeated on the second day, but this time, the parking was closer to the hotel and the payment was 1500 ALL.
" It's inconceivable, because they didn't ask me for any money just for the air, the hotel costs 8000 lek and no parking, while with less than 1000 lek you can't park, the beach is empty, there are only a few sun loungers, tourism here is thought out backwards, only lek, but 0 service . "
And while officially the tourist season in Saranda has been a great success, municipal officials, "off the record", admit a number of problems, starting from the road axes that cannot cope with the influx, the lack of public transport in the city, but also congestion especially on the Saranda-Ksamil line! The lack of parking in the city, since many vacationers choose to stay in a hotel in Saranda and enjoy the beaches outside the city, has become one of the city's biggest problems.
Parking, Saranda Municipality:It is very problematic"
The Municipality of Saranda, in a request for information, says: " The parking situation in the city of Saranda is very problematic, especially during the tourist season." But when asked about the total number of parking spaces in the city, this institution, which is responsible for having this information, says that for 2024, the inventory of the total number has not yet been made as they are in the process. " While for 2023, there were 90 reserved paid spaces," says the municipality, when it could have set the total number of parking spaces as the data it had for 2023, just as it did with paid parking.
And while acknowledging that during the tourist season, parking spaces in the city are not sufficient, the municipality, " There are plans to create public parking in the city, not in the center, but we are in the discussion phase with co-financing from the government."
Although it has been asked what these plans are, to see if it is something concrete, this institution does not give an answer to this question.
On the other hand, the municipality says that one of the most problematic challenges faced by local government structures in relation to parking is the occupation of places by unauthorized persons.
Parking is not a new problem for Saranda, especially during the summer season. Asked what has been done in the last 15 years by the Municipality to address this problem, this institution says: The city is carrying out road infrastructure works and a public transport terminal is also being built to avoid the passage of heavy vehicles (buses).
Experts: There is a solution, it's a matter of costs
Urbanist Ardian Muka, in an interview for Sinjalizo, says that there are solutions, but it's all a matter of costs.
" The problem is that when elections are held normally, they are resolved at a lower cost, when they go into emergency mode, the costs are higher," he says, adding that one of the solutions that could alleviate the "parking space crisis" in Saranda is to plan for as many parking spaces as apartments for the construction permits that are issued.
" If Saranda has an acute problem, it will not be the number of apartments but this number plus 20%, which the municipality can administer or the owners can administer, for non-residents," he says.
For Mr. Muka, the part of the squares should be seen urgently as public parking, as an investment by the municipality, which is also a profitable business at today's prices.
" The municipality can take over x area of land where it can administer it or give it out as a concession, then it remains to be seen," he says, adding that the city's main streets should be converted into paid public parking, as this way neither tourists nor residents will leave their cars parked all day and this will make traffic in the city more flexible.
Another solution for urban planner Muka could be single-lane roads, a solution that Saranda has to some extent, as well as the construction of ring roads. " It could also be a solution for public parking lots, mainly for buses that bring a large influx of people, so that they don't enter the city at all, but to do this you need to have a very good public transport system ," he says, adding that it is very important that decision-makers, starting with the Municipal Council, listen to specialists when making these decisions so that we don't have these problems.
" Saranda was not only not designed for tourism, but it was not designed for cars either, like any other city under socialism. The roads were designed for as few cars as the country's ruling elite had, and the rest were work vehicles," says Gentjan Kaprata, an urban planner.
But in the last 33 years, a lot could change for the better, but not always these changes have been positive.
" The new buildings were not developed according to a general regulatory plan after the 90s and these constructions were made according to this plan. Now we have further densification. All three of these aspects make it theoretically impossible to solve the problems of parking, rest and circulation," says Mr. Kaprata, who adds that it is unrealistic to think that Saranda will ever have good circulation.
But there are solutions to alleviate the problem. One of which is to remove the car from the city and create large public parking lots by empowering public transport.
Saranda is currently one of the most important cities for the coastal tourism map in Albania, but it is a small municipality, which has limited capacities to cope with the flow of hundreds of thousands of tourists and the need to address the challenges of the road infrastructure and of parking, turns into something even more urgent than it was, when the goal is to return tourism to the main economic pillar of the country.
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