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Distraught Bike Thief Pays Victim Back by Reuters submitted: 2006-07-19 Nude cyclists peel off around Spanish cities by Reuters submitted: 2006-06-10 Cars Banned for the Day in Bogota by Jared Kotler submitted: 2001-02-05 Air Pollution Adds to European Death Toll by Reuters submitted: 2000-09-04 Images from Amsterdam - City of Bicycles by Miles Poindexter submitted: 2000-07-16 Dutch Bike School Helps With Cultural Integration by Ernst Poulsen submitted: 2000-04-05 Pedicab Drivers Sue Governor Sutiyoso for Operating Ban by A. Rahman Paul BARTER submitted: 2000-02-20 Italy Bans Cars For One Day In 150 City Centres by Loris Tissino submitted: 2000-02-11 The Dutch Have a Master Plan (for bicycles) by Don Mathew submitted: 1999-12-06 Secret to Long Life? Pedal, Pedal, Pedal by Omaha World-Herald submitted: 1999-11-21 |
Italy Bans Cars For One Day In 150 City Centres [11 February 2000] Loris Tissino The city centres of 150 Italian cities and towns were closed to motorized traffic on Sunday, February 6th, and eighteen million people could test how a car-free life would be. In 150 Italian cities the experiment of a Sunday without cars was "a success", according to its inventor, Edo Ronchi, Minister of Environment. Some towns banned the cars in all their territory, some only in the centre. Some only for few hours, some all day long. But everywhere people seemed to like the initiative. Free rides on busses and trams, and low-priced entrance-fees on museums added to the positive attitude. People walked, skated, and, of course, biked. In many towns ecological organizations and the green party organized public demonstrations to make people aware of the fact that it wouldn't be impossible to be less car-dependent also in everyday life. Many people expressed the idea that this experiment should become a real policy. FIAB (the Italian Federation of bicycle advocacy groups) emphasized the role of the bicycle for short travels, like home-to-work and home-to-school, and asked to the Miniter of the Environment to consider it in the planning for sustainable mobility and to local administrations to urge their "mobility managers" (a new office introduced by a recent law) to focus on bicycles for finding solutions to traffic-related problems. The next car-free sundays in Italy will be on March 5th, April 9th, and May 7th. The EU Commisioner for the Environment, Margot Wallstr'm, is presently working to get a large number of European cities to join a common car-free day on september 22nd. So far cities in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, England, Denmark and Finland have pledged to join the campaign. |