The companies operating on Granīta Street in Riga have created a civic initiative called "Safe Granīta Street" with the aim of "ensuring that Riga City Council provides a safe infrastructure for Riga residents to get to and from their workplaces". The municipality promises improvements "within the next three years".
Granīta Street tends to be quite busy. There are many businesses in the area. There are no pavements, the street is not lit and there are no pedestrian crossings. As a result, people cannot safely get to public transport stops. To get to the bus stops, people have to wade through the bushes, as it is impossible to move along the side of the street.
Katrīna Rabkeviča, a representative of the initiative "Safe Granīta Street", told the program that Granīta Street is home to more than 25 different companies, employing more than 1,600 people, "and every day these people - our employees - risk their lives both in the morning and in the evening on their way to and from work".
"It is a very dangerous situation and at the moment we are only faced with excuses over lack of funding," said Rabkēviča.
The initiative's representative pointed out that no improvements have been made in six years to make the street safer. In addition, there have been accidents.
"This is very important for us, because in 2016 there was also a quite serious accident in which one of our employees was injured. I really hope that we don't have to have another accident like that to really draw attention to us.
"What we want is to have a written timetable within which these actions can be taken. The first thing is the installation of pedestrian crossings, which I think certainly does not require such a large financial investment [..] because human life comes first," said the spokesperson for the initiative.
"If nothing is really done and this issue is not addressed, we are ready for various protests," she added.
Andrejs Urtāns, head of the Traffic Infrastructure Department at the Riga City Council's Department for Outdoor Space and Mobility, said that "the department has this street in its sight".
"At the moment, a construction project is being developed for the department, which envisages pedestrian and cycling infrastructure that would connect to the city boundary, connect to the existing infrastructure of the Latvian State Roads, and go as far as the Krustpils Street junction," Urtāns said.
"This project will have separate pedestrian/cycling infrastructure, lighting and pedestrian crossing points where they are needed," promised the department's spokesperson.
The pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and lighting project is expected to be completed this year and, "once the construction project is ready, we will put it on the plans accordingly, we are looking for funding and it is expected to be realised in the next three years", said Urtāns.
Urtāns explained that "to build and install infrastructure, you need design documentation in any case. The bush clearance, which is necessary to improve visibility, will be surveyed by the department and if necessary this work will be carried out, but the good news is that this year the design is expected to be ready and then we could actually start building this infrastructure in the near future".
