Transport in Rome: La Vita Infelice

Janis Magnuson recommends this item from The Guardian:

.

Pedestrianisation campaign aims to kick Rome’s car habit, one street at a time

.

The municipal council that represents all 22 rioni (districts) within the city’s ancient Aurelian walls recently voted to ban parking on the street (Via Urbana – map here) in a move that will effectively, if not officially, pedestrianise it. Now Rome’s bicycle-friendly mayor, Ignazio Marino, has until Sunday to confirm or reject the move, but with 15 of the 19 municipal councillors voting across party lines in favour, it would appear a formality.

For the vast majority of people who live and work in Via Urbana, this is the first step in a broader campaign to change the way locals and tourists experience the city’s tight, winding vicoli (lanes) – where harrassed pedestrians are forced to dart around honking cars and buzzing scooters – and drag Rome kicking and screaming into line with the rest of 21st-century Europe.

.

But this is what jumped out at me: an explanation of why Rome’s transportation is so dysfunctional:

Data compiled by the Italian Automobile Club in 2011 revealed that there were just over 1.9 million cars on the road in Rome (741 for every 1,000 people), compared to just over 2.6 million cars registered in London in the same year (310 for every 1,000 people). This is partly cultural, but also due to the paucity of public transport infrastructure in Rome: an extensive tram network was dismantled in the years leading up to the 1960 Olympics, as car ownership exploded, and the city has just three metro lines, one of which is only partly finished and won’t reach the historic centre until at least 2020. According to La Repubblica, 36% of local transport company ATAC’s 2,300 buses are permanently broken down in its depots, due to debts of €429m that mean it can’t pay the companies who supply spare parts.