Naples. For some time now, residents of the densely populated Neapolitan hills, which encompass the Vomero and Arenella districts, have been grappling with a still-unresolved mystery. This mystery concerns traffic in the central and extremely busy Piazza degli Artisti. Who, and why, removed the pedestrian crossing between the sidewalks of the traffic island and the square itself? This is the question circulating among residents. Among the first to raise the issue was Gennaro Capodanno, president of the Comitato Valori Colliri and the Comitato per il Trasporto Pubblico. After numerous requests and battles on the matter in the past, he welcomed the fact that the horizontal markings at the crossing in question had finally been replaced.
"One of the most frequented crossings but also, I believe, among the most dangerous is the one that from the traffic island, in the center of the square, takes pedestrians onto the sidewalk of the square itself - Capodanno points out -. A crossing that is located a few meters from the curve that allows cars, coming from via S. Gennaro ad Antignano, to enter the square in question. Also for this reason, I presume, that until recently, this crossing was also equipped with traffic lights. With the traffic lights removed - Capodanno recalls - and with the pedestrian crossings that had almost completely disappeared due to the wear and tear to which they are notoriously subject over time, only the two ramps on the two sides of the roadway remained to remind us that it was a crossing, used, at this point, by pedestrians and also by people with walking difficulties at their own risk and peril precisely because of the absence of both the traffic lights and the crossings. Then finally, after numerous requests made in this regard, the pedestrian crossings were redone. But after a few days the news arrived, greeted with no small amount of amazement but also with a chorus of criticism - adds Capodanno -. The pedestrian crossings in question, from one evening to the next, had disappeared, covered with a layer of bitumen. Since then, pedestrians who have to cross the square, once they have reached the traffic island from the sidewalk of via Luca Giordano, using the pedestrian crossings present in that crossing, have to rely on good luck to reach the other sidewalk, since the zebras, for this specific crossing, no longer exist. It is even worse for those who have walking problems, who can get off the two sidewalks involved via the respective ramps, without however finding the zebra crossings to cross. A decision that seemed incomprehensible as well as unjustified and which, despite reports and protests, has still not been remedied - stigmatizes Capodanno -. But also costly for the public administration, given that the fact of having first drawn the zebra stripes and then covered them with bitumen certainly represented a cost, borne by the community. The reasons for such behavior are completely unknown, as they have not been publicized.
In this regard, Capodanno urges the competent offices to clarify the "mystery" in question, also requesting, where there are no impediments that, at present, however, cannot be seen, the remaking of the zebra stripes between the two ramps present respectively on the traffic island and on the pavement of Piazza degli Artisti, or, alternatively, the restoration of the pre-existing traffic light system, in order to allow pedestrians to cross the carriageway, in the section in question, in safe conditions.
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