[sustran] fwd: [carfreeday] AP - Rome Holds First Car-Free Sunday

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Subject: [carfreeday] Associated Press Rome Holds First Car-Free Sunday

By Candice Hughes
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, Feb. 6, 2000; 3:28 p.m. EST

ROME -- Skating, cycling and strolling Romans reclaimed their cobblestone
streets from the automobile on the capital's first car-free Sunday.
It was perfect weather - sunny and bright - for walking the dog or taking a
jog, and thousands did just that, thronging uncharacteristically quiet
streets. The city - normally pungent with fumes and throbbing to the beat of
the internal combustion engine - took on a festive air.

"It's wonderful, you can even hear people's footsteps on the cobblestones,"
said 65-year-old Franco Cianci, strolling with his wife near the Pantheon.
Rome is one of nearly 150 Italian cities banning cars and non-electric
scooters from their centers one Sunday a month in a campaign to cut air
pollution.

Public transport was still operating, as were taxis, but Rome was a quieter,
cleaner version of its usual chaotic self on Sunday.

"A success!" proclaimed Environment Minister Edo Ronchi, taking a turn
around the Piazza Venezia, normally a daunting sea of honking, jostling
cars, with his 21/2-year-old son, Nicolo.

In many cities, including Rome, public transportation was free on Sunday, as
was parking on the edges of the no-car zone. To further sweeten the deal,
the capital also offered free entry to most museums and archaeological
sites.

The ban on private vehicles was in effect from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.
Offenders are fined about $60.

Environmental organizations were thrilled with the antismog initiative.
Italy's leading such group, the Legambiente, released a study about how bad
the nation's traffic is. Cars in Rome, it said, move at an average speed of
less than 6 mph.

"I tried to drive in Rome and it's completely crazy," said a kilt-clad Scot,
Peter Laverie, in Rome for a rugby union match.

The head of the World Wildlife Fund in Italy, Fulco Pratesi, brandished his
lung X-rays for reporters. "I have emphysema thanks to the pollution" he
said, pleading with the city to make car-less Sundays a permanent affair.
For Renato Mazza, a suburbanite who trekked to the city center to see it
car-less, even the buses and taxis were too much.

"I would have preferred that the center was completely closed to any kind of
vehicle, private and public," he said.

Rome's car-free Sundays will continue through May.
(c) Copyright 2000 The Associated Press

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Distributed for the purpose of education and research.

A. Rahman Paul BARTER
Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia
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