Area C is an unpopular measure; unfair especially towards the residents, who are forced to pay to leave the house or to return; ineffective since after a couple of weeks of application the air quality has not improved.
Area C is a success: from the data of the first week of the restriction it seems (perhaps they are a must: we will come back to it…) that one in four Milanese has chosen to give up the car, almost always giving preference to public transport.
Let's stop here: the two statements, perfectly antithetical, served to summarize the two currents of thought that accompany the comments on the measure introduced on January 16 in Milan. Declared purpose: to drastically limit traffic within the so-called circle of ramparts. Objective achieved, at least for now.
Impervious terrain: any interpretation, comment, risks taking into account some factors and not others. And then it is based on data that are conspicuous for their unreliability, also taking into account only some aspects of the problem. Not to mention that they're often trimmed to favor one outcome rather than the opposite.
Pollution, for example. The Pm10, according to the monitoring stations scattered around Milan, has not decreased. But the infamous Carbon Black is, which of fine powders is perhaps the most terrible component for our bronchial tubes. So how to read this aspect of the problem? Certainly not in a bad way. The fact that PM10 does not grow, after days without a drop from the sky for weeks, with the incredible high pressure and poor ventilation that accompanied this January more similar to a mid-autumn than a full winter, is already a success . And let's draw a pitiful veil over those who, in order to defend Area C, have taken the risk of saying that the provision is in any case designed to reduce traffic, not pollution. As if they weren't, at least in part, the first cause of the second.
And above all: the quality of life, within the famous Area C, has improved. Fewer cars, fewer queues, less double and triple row parking. Less anxiety for the buses that now pass at higher speeds, with drivers who confess that, at times, they have to slow down to meet the timetables. These, in the opinion of the writer, are given by a civilized country. From a modern country. And it's not true (summarized from the city's newspaper reports) that traffic has become unsustainable near the gates of Area C. Ditto for the wild stop, kept at bay by vigilante massacre patrols in terms of fines, as perhaps it would be better if it also happened in Milan not close to the Duomo.
Objection: Area C shopkeepers complain of drastic declines in their trade. 30 to 70 percent, they say. So much so that they will soon be forced to fire, to return licenses to the Municipality, to declare bankruptcy. Which, if true, will be a tragedy. For shopkeepers, no doubt. But above all because it will show that in a big city like Milan it is the relationship between the citizen that is wrong.
And here we are finally at what would like to be the heart of this article. In fact, who said that the Italian cannot give up the car, or at least restrict its use within city centres? Who said that with this stupendous object, a symbol of great freedom and (why not?) also of personal pleasure, it is mandatory to have/be able to get everywhere: even one meter from a shop, a cinema, a church? And maybe parking for free.
Sure: everything would be easier if Italian city centers were organized with more prudent choices. Parking available at logical costs, widespread public transport, efficient even late at night: stuff that no administration in Italy has taken care of for half a century, as if the multiplication of cars in Italy had not existed, or were impossible to predict. Bike sharing exists and is being developed; but the number and above all the conformation of the cycle paths are such as to make crossing Milan by bike a real risk.
But Area C also represents a step forward in this direction: Moratti's Ecopass basically said, If you pay, pollute as much as you want. With Pisapia's restriction, if you drive a Euro 3 diesel or less, you don't enter even if you've gone to the checkout. If you're behind the wheel of a LPG or methane-powered car, you're free. And the exceptions to the ticket to be paid, while not very controllable as always happens with us, are at least a little more limited. There remain favoritisms that make people turn up their noses at the ticket, or on the bus, who just can't escape. And we can do much better on other fronts as well.
But something happened. Changes start from the first step, like all processes. This, it would seem, the Milanese have begun to understand. We'll talk about it again in a few weeks.
