Tourist coaches wreaking havoc in city centre
A certified coach stop at Hverfisgata. A new committee has called for many more such stops as now, coaches are randomly stopping at hotels and guesthouses in the city centre, blocking traffic. mbl.is/Ófeigur Lýðsson
Coaches picking up or dropping off tourists to hotels and apartments in the Reykjavik city centre are causing traffic problems. A new committee has been formed to control coach traffic in this area.
Their suggestions are likely to bring about limitations in the traffic of bot large and small coaches, as well as superjeeps.
A video of a coach driver and a passer by arguing in the city centre has gone viral in the past couple of days. The pedestrian tells the driver that he's parking illegally and the driver responds that he "honestly doesn't give a f**k." See the video here below.
Director of the environmental and planning department of Reykjavik, Hjálmar Sveinsson, says that the situation is intolerable in the city centre.
"We've received a great amount of complaints, about coaches driving in narrow residential streets and even parking on pavements to pick people up at 3.30 am," he says to mbl.is. "This is particularly bad in Grettisgata, Klapparstígur and neighbouring streets."
Among the suggestions for the new regulations are that coaches and superjeeps are not allowed to drive in narrow streets in the areas of Þingholt, Skólavörðuholt, Kvosin and some parts of Vesturbær, the western part of town.
The regulations will be voted on at the City Council next week and if they go through, the regulations will be applied in April.
