Students, citizens and associations met this morning in Piazza Dante for a flash mob aimed at restoring the ZTL in Piazza Dante, a nerve centre for vehicular traffic, attracting high levels of noise and air pollution, with the slogan fewer cars and more public transport.
On this occasion, data on air pollution and local performance on the main indicators of urban mobility were presented, with proposals on the policies needed to respond to the reduction commitments planned for 2030, as part of the itinerant Clean Cities campaign organized by Legambiente. Naples – the protesters emphasized – is still polluted, as demonstrated by the 36 days of exceeding the legal limits for PM10 in 2022 at the Via Argine monitoring station.
From 2011 to 2021, Naples has seen a reduction of only 2% in PM10 concentrations and 4% in nitrogen dioxide concentrations. Air pollution is therefore still decreasing too slowly: at this rate, not even in 2030 will it be possible to hope to return to the new limit values that are about to be adopted by Europe.
PM10, with an average of 28 µg/m3 in 2022, will have to be reduced by 28% to meet new European targets set for 2030, PM2.5 by 40% but above all nitrogen oxides (NO2) by as much as 47%.
“With the Clean Cities campaign – comments Paola Silvi, head of the Legambiente Parco Letterario Vesuvio club – we are returning to shine the spotlight on one of the places that are a negative symbol of urban mobility policies: Piazza Dante, one of the busiest places in Naples, where, recently, the ZTL was further suspended despite the expressed will of civic committees and associations.
After the seafront, threatened with reopening to cars, the indefinite suspension of the Dante limited traffic zone worries us greatly because, in this case too, we are going backwards with anti-historical choices and in contrast with what has been done and is being done in other Italian and European cities.
It's time for courageous choices! We ask the city institutions for adequate and coherent measures with a modern and non-autocentric vision of the city.
Let's say no to new devastating parking lots in the middle of the city, and yes to external interchange parking lots, we ask for the reinstatement of the ZTL Dante and new pedestrian areas. cycle paths, school streets and Zone 30, more public transport. free bus lines, in a horizon of "15-minute city" where you can find services and commercial establishments on foot".
In Naples there are still too many cars in circulation (59 cars/100 inhabitants), just think that in a European comparison between similar cities, we should go below 35 (like Paris 25, Berlin 33, London 30).
The public transport offer in Naples is not brilliant: 7 times less than Milan, much less than Genoa, Cagliari or Bologna. Thanks to the metro and trams, the offer of renewable electric Tpl is good, already at 56%, with the help of the government and the investments of the Pnrr an implementation of electric buses is planned in the coming years: but we are still far from 100% electric by 2030.
The offer of “rapid mass” transport (mass rail yes, rapid and comfortable almost never) in the city of Naples (34 stations, 600 trains per day) is good, if the notable critical issues and obsolescence of some lines and rolling stock were resolved, if the Mergellina funicular were to restart and if line 6 were to start up for the section already built.
The urban lines of Circumflegrea and Cumana offer poor service. The new Metro is good, but half the stops and trains of Milan for the same population served.
“There is still much to be done for Naples in terms of sustainable mobility – comments Francesca Ferro, director of Legambiente Campania – We can do better and more to promote cycling mobility: just 19 km of cycle paths for one million inhabitants (3 million with the metropolitan area) and it is worrying that their extension does not show signs of growing year after year”.
During the initiative, the Mob project by the Unipolis Foundation, in partnership with Legambiente, was also presented. The initiative aims to involve young people between the ages of 16 and 21, who will compete in a large national tournament where the winner will be the one who moves in a sustainable way and who will then be involved in defining interventions to make the mobility of their city more sustainable and efficient.
CleanCities is a journey through 17 Italian capitals, from North to South, to forcefully promote a new urban mobility: safer, more efficient, less polluting. The initiative is part of the Clean Cities Campaign, a European network of environmental associations and grassroots movements that aims for zero-emission urban mobility by 2030.
After Naples, Legambiente's travelling campaign will go to Avellino (16 February), Rome (17 and 20 February), Pescara (17 February), Bologna (18 February), Padua (22 February), Perugia (23 and 24 February), Trieste (25 February), Palermo (25 February), Catania (27 February), Prato (27 and 28 February) and Florence (1 and 2 March).
The following have joined the demonstration in Piazza Dante: Legambiente Naples Circles, WWF Naples, FIAB Naples Cicloverdi, Green People, Green Italy, Green Polis, NO BOX Social Network, ZTL Dante Committee, San Martino Committee, Naples Pedala, Cleanap, Greenpeace GL Naples, Vas Naples, N'Sea Yet, Viviani Park Association, Mascagna Park Association
Article published on 15 February 2023 - 11:20
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