[pf] Italy bans the car for a day; Guardian Weekly 10 Feb.

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 11:28:10 +1300
To: David MacClement <davd@ihug.co.nz>
From: Bera MacClement <.-.-.-.-@auckland.ac.nz>
Subject: Italy bans cars for a day - Guardian Weekly

Italy bans the car for a day

Rory Carroll in Rome

Disbelieving at first, Italians poured into city centres last Sunday to
inhale, taste and savour an unprecedented silence and stillness: life
without the internal combustion engine. A national no-car day banished
traffic from nearly 150 cities, allowing strollers, skaters, cyclists and
horse riders to reclaim the cobblestones.
Rome, Florence, Milan and Naples coupled the ban with free or cheaper
public transport in a bold effort to break a love affair with the car;
museums and galleries were free for the day. Hundreds of volunteers joined
traffic police in enforcing the ban, to be repeated over the next three
months. (The cost of transgressing is $64.) But cars returned within 15
minutes of the end of the banning hours.
A government honeypot of $420m encouraged regional capitals and dozens of
smaller towns to sign up to the voluntary ban. It was proposed two decades
ago, but was delayed by politicians fearful of provoking a car-addicted
electorate. Italy has 32m vehicles for 57.5m people, one of the world's
highest ratios.
Smog-related illnesses, including asthma and bronchitis attacks, kill more
than 15,000 Italians and cost 16m working days each year. During a trial
day without cars last September eight cities recorded an average 35% drop
in carbon monoxide levels.
 
The Guardian Weekly 10-2-2000, page 3

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