TBILISI, October 3 – Tbilisi drivers often grumble about getting stuck in traffic, but the head of Georgian Taxi Federation insists the capital’s gridlock is nothing compared to other big cities.
Zurab Agladze, founder of the federation, told BPN that licensed taxi drivers with modern, registered cars have a major advantage: they can use the city’s bus lanes, bypassing traffic. “Those who can afford registration, a license, and a new car move on bus lanes and have a big advantage,” he said. “Those who cannot, well, that’s their problem.”
According to Agladze, reforms in recent years, new buses and minibuses, stricter licensing rules, and a clean-up of the taxi sector, have already changed the city’s transport scene dramatically compared to the past. But geography still plays against Tbilisi. The capital is stretched along a river valley, hemmed in by mountains, and has narrow roads that struggle to handle the fast-growing number of private cars.
He argues that people who find the congestion unbearable should either switch to public transport or accept the situation as it is. “In Moscow, traffic jams hit level 10 on a ten-point scale and you can wait two hours. Here we are at level three,” Agladze told BPN.
