Epress.am News from Armenia
Four people were detained and several cars towed earlier today following a vehicle procession organized by members of an initiative called "Get Out of Our Pocket" protesting traffic fines and paid parking spaces.
The "march" began around 12:40 pm from the Komitas Pantheon but was soon halted, as police blocked off a stretch of road of Arshakunyats Ave., not permitting protestors to continue. According to the Epress.am correspondent, a few hundred cars were stuck in traffic as police refused to open the road, explaining that the procession might paralyze traffic in the city center. Organizers urged fellow drivers not to succumb to police provocations and show their disobedience by honking their horns.
Recall, the initiative's demands are to eliminate the newly introduced paid public parking spaces, to lower by five times the fines for traffic violations caught by speed sensors and CCTV cameras, to cancel the penalties accrued for failing to make payments on previously recorded violations, and to freeze the use of CCTV cameras and speed sensors for fining drivers, leaving this function to the road police until a new, acceptable procedure is adopted.
Initiative member Armen Manvelyan yesterday said all those decisions by the police and Yerevan City Hall, to lower from September the fine amounts caught by speed sensors, as well as making the previously free 5 minutes to free 15 minutes of parking, have nothing to do with their demands.
Photo credit: Pre-Parliament