The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
In the ‘war on wheels’, tourists will be victorious
While the UK bickers over LTNs, Europe is quietly leading a car-free revolution. It seems to be working, says Nick Trend
This week’s news that Milan is planning to extend the pedestrianisation of its city centre struck a chord with me. I was there in April and was reminded just how narrow and awkward the pavements are in some of the central areas – including the Fashion Quadrilatero, where most of the big-name fashion brands have their shops and window displays. For the most part, it was hard to walk two abreast and often impossible to pass people coming the other way without stepping down into the gutter and getting wiped out by a passing Fiat 500 or a speeding Vespa.
The move, by Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala – who backed Sadiq Khan’s Ulez extension in London – is driven partly by a similar desire to reduce pollution (Milan has some of the most polluted air in Italy), partly to physically free the streets from too many cars. The fashion outlets are backing the move. But, inevitably, it is also causing political controversy, just as low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) are doing in the UK. A rival mayor from a suburban district accuses Sala of penalising motorists and trying to make it impossible to drive into Milan.
Elsewhere the battle for our city streets is spreading. While some authorities in Europe are targeting cars in favour of pedestrians and residents, others have set their sights on other forms of wheeled transport. This week, in northern France, the city council in Lille decided to ban bicycles, scooters and skateboards from the pedestrianised historic centre. Meanwhile, after a public vote in April – following a spate of accidents and injuries – Paris has just banned rented electric scooters. But it doesn’t look as though plans to ban cars from the city centre during the Olympics next year are likely to come to fruition.
Other cities acted some time ago. Prague banned cyclists from the pedestrianised historic centre in 2018 and, a year previously, Amsterdam put an end to “dockless” bike-share schemes. (However, while this may have reduced the number of stationary bikes left on the streets, it seems to have done little to reduce the number that hurtle wildly along the canal-side cobbles.)
Pedestrians are not in the ascendency everywhere. In Berlin, the new centre-Right city government has reversed the pedestrianisation of Friedrichstraße – the famous street at the heart of the city. And it has suspended plans to expand the network of cycle lanes and all cycle-friendly infrastructure projects that “endanger” existing car usage.
Berlin is an outlier, however. Generally speaking, city centres around Europe are moving in favour of walking rather than wheels. And, in most places, controversy has erupted. Opinions seem to depend largely on how an individual likes to use urban streets and spaces. If you prefer to drive as much as possible, you may be frustrated by 20mph limits and shared road spaces. If you enjoy cycling, or have young children or grandchildren and live on a suburban rat-run, you are more likely to welcome them.
If you are visiting on holiday, on the other hand, more pedestrianisation of historic areas is nearly always a boon. Of course, some enjoy exploring by bike, so easy-to-use hire schemes and safe cycleways are also helpful, but mostly tourists like to walk. We tend to stay in city centres and we like them to be spacious, safe and quiet. We don’t face commuting problems. If we do need to travel by public transport, we tend to be able to use it at the best times, outside the rush hour. We are not usually in a hurry and we like to walk – usually slowly and often in groups.
So I declare my hand. I’m all in favour of traffic calming and pedestrianisation in cities – especially the most beautiful and historic ones. But I have to say that those ambling tourists taking up pavement space in London are seriously starting to get on my nerves when I am rushing to get to work.