Air quality can be bad in Torino if winter weather conditions - basically thermal inversion and the absence of precipitation and wind - don't help dispersing the pollutants produced by industry, heating and vehicle exhausts. Although large portions of the city are heated through a district heating system, that is hot water piped from local power plants, motor traffic is an obvious major source of dangerous compounds and particles joyfully playing at nostrils level. Public transit can play an essential role and it's not so bad in this town, but currently used by a mere 23% of urban commuters. The 67% of them use their car and the 5% use a motorcycle.
This said, why does the City Council dictate a total motor traffic ban on selected Sundays? This coming Sunday will be one of these. Statistic data from past experiences show that this measure is totally useless. Despite the ban, the quantity of authorized circulating vehicles is not much different than that moving around on a normal, typical Sunday.
Personally, I'd love to see a re-humanized, empty city at all times. Conversely, the majority of citizens shout their angry voice even against occasional Sunday bans (from 10AM through 6PM). Same chorus of complaints occurs when certain city streets are converted to pedestrians areas. Walking? Cycling? This is considered as stupid. Rather than understanding the serious health risks posed by pollution, people feel deprived of their freedom for an eight-hour period of time. They can't wait to start their engines again. They love being imprisoned for hours in traffic jams inside their costly toys.
A well deserved punishment.
No comments:
Post a Comment