Kyivgorsvet, a municipal enterprise, promises to illuminate 50 pedestrian crossings in the capital by the end of 2021. This is the company's plan to complete the implementation of a petition that Kyiv residents supported back in 2016. During this time, Kyivgorsvet has only completed such work at eight sites out of approximately 270 planned crossings. The situation with the remaining crossings is unclear. It was stated that some of them are being illuminated "according to a different program," while others are being illuminated by new traffic lights.
As KV has learned, on February 24, 2021, the Kyiv City Council Commission on Transport, Communications, and Advertising took note of the progress of electronic petition No. 560, "Lighting of Pedestrian Crosswalks in Kyiv at Night," dated November 12, 2015. The commission deemed this petition to be in progress.
The Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) submitted the relevant information for the commission's consideration. The commission's materials do not contain a written report on this issue. During the meeting, Volodymyr Krutsenko, Director of the Kyivgorsvet Municipal Enterprise (pictured left), spoke as a rapporteur on the petition's implementation.
According to his information, the petition called for lighting to be installed at 277 pedestrian crossings, but the corresponding work was only carried out at 8 sites.
At the same time, according to Volodymyr Krutsenko, lighting at some crossings was installed as part of a major overhaul program (apparently, this was referring to the Kyiv City Targeted Outdoor Lighting Program for 2019-2022). Furthermore, the speaker noted that traffic lights were installed at some pedestrian crossings, which was carried out by the "Traffic Management Center" municipal enterprise. The Kyiv City State Administration likely considered traffic lights an alternative to lighting. Therefore, according to Kyivgorsvet's calculations, lighting at another 50 pedestrian crossings is necessary to fully implement the petition.
"In 2021, 7,7 million hryvnias have been allocated [from the capital's budget], and we will install lighting at 50 pedestrian crossings for which projects were developed in 2016 (the project documentation will be updated – KV). We will resolve this issue and put an end to it by the end of the year," promised Volodymyr Krutsenko.
As KV reported, the petition's author, Igor Golovchenko, brought to the attention of city officials over four years ago that Kyiv had hundreds of unlit or poorly lit pedestrian crossings. He proposed installing bright enough lighting at each crossing to allow drivers to spot pedestrians in advance.
"This could very well save pedestrians' lives and protect drivers from unwanted consequences. Furthermore, it would significantly reduce the number of accidents at pedestrian crossings," the petition noted.
Moreover, in February 2018, it became known that the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Transport Infrastructure and the Kyivmisk Lighting Enterprise were delaying the construction of outdoor lighting networks for ground-level pedestrian crossings. Despite the fact that, as early as July 2016, the Kyiv City State Administration had planned such work for 265 locations (as reported above, Krutsenko had stated a different number – 277 crossings – KV), as of February 2018, outdoor lighting networks had only been built at eight locations, and at 50, only the design phase had been completed.
The situation hasn't changed for quite some time. A year ago, on February 5, 2020, members of the transport commission once again considered the implementation of the petition and were outraged by the inaction of Vitali Klitschko's subordinates. At the time, the members of parliament quipped that, based on the pace at which Kyiv officials and utility companies were addressing the issue, it would likely take about 100 years to illuminate the city's crosswalks.
As a reminder, Volodymyr Krutsenko has headed Kyivgorsvet Municipal Enterprise since March 26, 2018. Prior to that, he served as Acting Director of the enterprise since November 16, 2017. This enterprise is subordinate to Kyivavtodor Municipal Enterprise, which has been temporarily headed by Oleksandr Fedorenko, Deputy General Director for Production Development, since May 19, 2020.
Kyivavtodor reports to the Department of Transport Infrastructure of the Kyiv City State Administration, which has been headed by Valentyn Osipov, former deputy director general of Kyivavtodor, since February 6, 2020. Since March 2, 2020, the department's activities have been overseen by Oleksandr Gustelev (pictured right), deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration. Previously, from April 15, 2015, to February 21, 2020, he headed Kyivavtodor.
Photo: collage by KV
Alexander Glazunov
Klitschko's deputy, Gustelev, needed financial assistance to solve his everyday problems.
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