The move is to encourage people to use the city's public transport to go to school and reduce an upsurge in the use of private vehicles on the first day of the academic year. E-tickets or code tickets on Riga buses, trolleybuses and trams will not need to be registered on September 2.
Also, the municipality calls on drivers to be especially careful around schools. Informational posters have been installed on the country's main highways near the Rīga city limits, reminding motorists of the recommended driving speed – 30 km/h – near educational institutions.
Pulks also said that deadlines for completing street repairs in the capital are still on target and no deadlines have been violated.
"We have never promised that all construction works will end on September 1," Pulks said.
He explained that the construction season lasts from April to November, if we are lucky with the weather. However, the member of the city council agreed that this year the road repairs started largely only in the second half of the summer.
"Yes, we don't get that fast with procurement. We need both procurement for the construction process and procurement for construction supervision. And it was construction supervision that caused these delays. That's why we started in the middle of summer. Well, I have to apologize as much as I can. But the only thing that I can say – even if we had started on time, in any case, the repairs would continue into the fall," Pulks admitted.
