Romania's car fleet almost triple over 24 years but road network fails to keep up with development pace

The Romanian Association for International Road Transport has criticised the state's poor record on improving the road network, with the number of cars in the country almost tripling in the last 24 years, to some 6 million. In a recent statement, the Association took aim at the "modest" progress made since Romania's first highway, a 96-kilometer stretch from Bucharest to Pitesti, was opened by the communist regime 40 years ago this year. “Now everyone involved in developing national infrastructure has a modest painting in front of them: only 548 kilometers of highway,” their statement read. The association pinpointed 2007 as the year the amount of traffic in Romania surpassed the road network's capacity to cope.

At that time, Romania had 4.5 million registered cars while the Eu entry meant visas were no longer needed to drive abroad.

Association secretary Florinel Andrei blamed the political motivation behind road financing for

why many other countries were well ahead Romania when it came to their road networks.

“Why are Bulgarians ahead of us on infrastructure? Why do we lag so far behind the Poles?” he asked in a statement.

He said the number of poorly repaired roads in Romania's villages and towns would go up in 2014, however added that he hoped for a change in mentalities in the the medium and long term.