San Juan Mayor Miguel A. Romero reported that between 2021 and 2026, a total of 5,148 abandoned, dilapidated, or junk vehicles have been removed from the municipality's lots and roads and taken to the municipal lot.
The announcement comes amid recent questions about vehicle accumulation in Río Piedras; the municipal administration said it continues the identification, notification, removal, and disposal process established under Ordinance No. 8, Series 2002-2003, known as the San Juan Traffic and Vehicle Parking Code. Yearly figures show 495 vehicles entered in 2021, 190 in 2022, 497 in 2023, 1,343 in 2024, 1,513 in 2025, and 1,110 so far in 2026, with 3,966 removed in just the last three years.
Mayor Romero said the municipality would continue this work while acknowledging the challenge of managing such volume, and that officials are focused on speeding up disposal processes to maintain capacity. The municipality stated the recent increase reflects the scale of the abandoned-vehicle problem in a city as large and dense as San Juan, and that the removal efforts aim to address public safety, sanitation, proper use of public space, and residents' quality of life.