by Livia Minca
Moving away from fossil fuels is
one of the biggest current challenges and for the cities who are trying to
achieve this, the road is certainly not easy. One obvious sector where changes
can and have to be made is transportation. However, good intentions sometimes
do not pay off.
Here are two examples of cities
where things are starting to move, although quite slowly.
In Zagreb, Croatia, the
main slice of public transport infrastructure goes to trams, that cover most of
the city centre, while buses are mainly used for suburban areas. This is
certainly a great advantage, as trams use electricity instead of fuel and do
not exhaust any nasty gases, so they are more environmentally friendly.
However, the ride fares are not very cheap if you are not using a monthly
subscription and the tickets represent one-way rides of maximum one hour in
time.
A few years ago, a measure that
was introduced by the city council certainly put a smile on citizens' faces. It
was decided that a city belt would be created in the centre, inside of which
travelling by tram would be free. Yes, it might have been just a political
decision to gain votes in the upcoming elections and no one actually promoted
the environmental benefits of this measure, but it does not mean they were not
felt. Free travelling in the centre encouraged people to leave their cars
outside and take the tram, less emissions were in the air, everyone was happy.
So what could have generated then
the adoption of a new measure this year that annihilates the old one? It may
have to do with the economic crisis, but the city council just argued that it
is not fair to not pay for a service that is offered to you. But what about the
taxes people pay? What about how it worked all these years, when there was
still economic crisis? Anyway, the unfortunate thing is that again the
environmental considerations were left aside. People just accepted the
situation and moved on, in the honks of cars that crowded up again in the
centre.
A pity, yes, but not all is lost.
Short as it may have been, the tram-dominated car-free centre of Zagreb will
remain a testimony of good practice, creating a precedent for environmental
argumentation when the time comes again for a change.
Moving to another part of Europe,
in Bucharest, Romania, the picture is completely different. A large,
noisy, polluted city with over 2 million people moving around, Bucharest is not
as lucky as Zagreb with its nice tram system. Sure, Bucharest has all forms of
public transport: buses, trolleys, trams and metro. Still, the amount of mostly
single-passenger cars is huge, even if parking spaces are scarce. The
above-ground public transport is simply overwhelmed by the traffic, people are
annoyed with the travel times, a general discontent floats in the air.
A few years ago some “fanatics”
started using bicycles to move around the city easier, squeezing themselves
among cars. This generated a whole debate about Bucharest lacking biking lanes
and in a desperate attempt to escape the angry citizens, the City Hall decided
to draw some paths. Just a hasty solution, as all of them were placed on the
already thin side walks (that became thin because an extra lane was added for
the cars in the years before), where people and parked cars together made it
impossible for bikers to have a smooth ride.
Still, the number of bikers
increased every year. Some gave up the idea of travelling through the city by
bike, but were just enthusiastic about
riding it, so they started to crowd the parks. Bicycle renting centres
appeared and were a success. NGOs promoting biking did not loose momentum and,
together with appropriate sponsors, came up with a great idea: rent a bike in
the park for free. It's quite easy and fun actually. You just need to leave
your ID there and you can have a bicycle for free for one hour. Practical, too:
if you damage the bike or do not bring it back, they know where to find you.
So, this is how the bikers
community is growing every year and how the parks are getting packed with
riders. Eventually something good will come out of this: either the authorities
will design proper bicycle lanes or they will have to build more parks (and
Bucharest desperately needs them as well).
