I've just read that Milan is introducing a scheme to 'reduce pollution' by restricting car access to the city based on odd/even reg nos.
Officials have said 'If pollution levels do not drop sharply, we will consider even more restrictions...'
So, if pollution levels don't drop (indicating that it isn't the car that's causing the problem), they will blindly restrict the car further, instead of trying to find the *real* cause.
The world has gone mad!
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Paris tried this - apparently those who could afford it just bought another car with the appropriate registration and used them on alternative days! Clearly if there were sufficient people doing this they won't get the response they wanted. I'm not sure what the conclusions of the Paris trials were.
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This has been the case in Sao Paulo for some years.
0-1, not Monday; 2-3, not Tuesday; etc.
The main issue here was that people put on the roads old, unsafe, polluting cars for the one day a week they couldn't use their normal car.
I'm not sure how it would work in a European country which presumably, with enforced MOTs or equivalent, would maintain at least some level of safety and non-pollution.
Certainly in Sao Paulo it doesn't reduce the traffic jams.
In Santiago, Chile, on the other hand, it is only vehicles without cats which are restricted and there it does reduce the traffic, although with what pollution effect I am not sure.
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Manila has had this for years. As pointed out by Mark, most families (including us) buy another car as a hack. If you can't afford another car you bribe someone to give you an exemption sticker (doctor, plainclothes policeman, govt worker or other job title which carries exemption). The vast number of new cars coming onto Manila's roads annually and the absence of any legislation to remove/limit/control old ones has made it pointless. It is any case the buses and jeepneys which pollute more than the cars. EVen dafter is that companies make no attempt to stagger working hours/days or fall in with the same kind of thinking, so its pointless.
Its the old story of the authorities failing to plan or budget to provide meaningful public transportation at reasonable cost. Developers who because of the economic downturn have stopped building on land they have acquired for malls, offices etc, are now making fortunes by using it as car parks. With the Philippines set to become Asia's fastest growing economy once again the problem will only get worse. Where I live is 12 miles from the CBD. On a rainy day during working hours allow 2-3 hours for that commute.
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Our own Transport Research Laboratory staff have said " There are no reasons for banning cars from city centres on air quality grounds"
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Indeed they have, Alwyn - but it seems New Labour have a talent for ignoring rigorously researched studies when it doesn't line up with their ideology.
I think it was TRL that pointed out that bus lanes did no good whatsoever and were generally detrimental to journey times, but we still see local authorities gleefully applying the white paint.
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