Aivars Mackevičs, director of Travelnews.lv: In the context of May 4th, I would like to bring attention to the everyday life of Latvian residents in the eastern border of Latvia. Everyone will have heard about the closing of banks, schools, hospitals, post offices and other state responsibility institutions or their relocation to larger administrative centers. At the same time, the possibilities of digital and artificial intelligence are intensively discussed.
Latvian airline airBaltic announces that it will provide pop-up flights from Riga to Liepāja in July and August 2024.
TIB of the Liepāja region
For the second time in the last 20 years, I drove extra from Riga to Latgali to help my father renew his driver’s license, which can only be done in Daugavpils or Rēzekne. For a resident of Riga or Daugavpils, it is the work of a few minutes or a couple of tram stops. For people who live on the border of Latvia, it is a challenge… in my case, 70 km there and 70 km back. Since my father has been traveling by car only within the Krāslava district for the last 20 years, a further trip is already a challenge and is not accepted due to road safety.
This is understandable, because many drivers do not want to drive in London, New York or Riga traffic.
In my opinion, we are stuck in this situation in the technological development of the world, because many countries no longer have a physical driver’s license, but a digital one, or both variants are practiced.
I can order an e-signature kit with a courier or establish a company digitally in Estonia, but I cannot order a driver’s license here, i.e. renew it. An e-signature can be used to verify identity, but the photo can be taken from a printout of the last passport or ID card. The solutions can be 100 and one. The main document is the passport or ID card of the Republic of Latvia and on its basis any policeman can identify… whether a resident of Latvia has a driver’s license or not, as is similarly determined for car OCTA insurance. However, the police have access to all databases.
Instead, every 10 years, all Latvian drivers are sent to CSDD from all corners of Latvia to do a job that is essentially from the last century.
Today, 2.05.2024, I tried to enjoy the sunny trip from Riga to Latgali and back (278 + 278 km) + the road to Daugavpils and back (69 + 70 km)… a total of 696 km so that the pensioner on the eastern border of Latvia could be mobile again and you can take care of your household affairs without the help of the social service, without unnecessarily spending the municipal budget.
If I were a politician, I would pay much more attention to those, the people of Latvia, who still live and care that our land on the border of Russia and Belarus is called Latvia. Latvia’s border residents should be exempted from several taxes/fees as much as possible and fuel should be subsidized, as is the case in some other countries of the European Union, so that local people can enjoy living and look forward to Latvia’s future together with their grandchildren.
Thanks to Europcar Latvia for the mobility and to the employees of CSDD Daugavpils branch for the kind service… dad appreciated it
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