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Local politicians should give a good example for future mobility
How lucky of you mister Mayor! You are one of the few Torinesi who can go at work by bicycle, only going along cycling tracks! You perfectly know, because you probably have been told by the road network councillor, that most of the citizens that use bicycle as a mean of transport to go to work, are not that lucky and sometimes they do not find not even a small part of a cycling track, putting everyday their life at risk along Turin roads. But you, you live in piazza Vittorio, so you can go along the new downtown cycling tracks to get to Palazzo di Città ! Yes, the same tracks that somebody mysteriously wants to close, supported by the local newspaper (see: Emanuela Minucci, Grane ciclabili, in <>, Sunday 19th October 2008).
Obviously the pieces of cycling tracks are not connected among them so it happens that you suddenly find yourself in the middle of the road, maybe in a maze of railway lines, but you will surely find out how to get out of troubles, isnt’it!, as it is taken for granted that a Turinese bicycle rider should do. He/she will also have to be careful at crossroads, because nobody is going to give way, and besides he/she will experience the automobiles dangerous manoeuvres. When the rider will find inevitable cars parked on the cycling track, he/she will have to bravely pass along the road with the risk of being run over by drivers, who often show to be hostile with cyclists. Alternatively he/she will have to jump on the sidewalk, with the risk of getting a fine: traffic wardens most likely will give the cyclist a fine rather than the car parked on the track.Well, this is surely dangerous and stressful, but what a great example would be? A person like you, desiring for Turin an ecologic and sustainable future, as we all desire! You maybe will infect the other local administrators to use an alternative mean to go to work. Possibly if you started risking your lives everyday, you would design more sensible cycling tracks, secured and connected among them, and hopefully respected by everybody.
I can but wish you a good bicycle ride, giving you the last advice: remember to wear a helmet, we would never like to read on the newspaper La Stampa: <>!
Sincerely,
Strale
Critical Mass is a spontaneous and self-run meeting of thousands of cyclists invading the streets that are usually used by cars, exploiting the strength of the number of participants (mass). If the mass is sufficient (that means critical), non-cyclist traffic is stopped also along big arteries.This idea was born in San Francisco in 1992 and spread quickly in thousands of cities in at least fourteenth countries, Critical Mass is a clear sign of protest that claims the use of alternative means of transport in order to fight the diffusion of traffic and pollution, and to establish bases for the mobility of the future: ecologic and sustainable future.
In Turin, Critical Mass, is pretty active, always updated and in the first row for fighting in the name of the ciclability of the city. In the last weeks, for example, it has been the only critical voice against the proposal of abolition of the new cycling tracks in downtown. During two days of protest, they have massively invaded those cycling tracks, showing that they should not have to be abolished, but improved and respected, remembering to all detractors that ecologic and sustainable mobility is a sign of civilization more than only common sense.
You can find Turin Critical Mass every first Saturday of the month at 4,00 p.m. and every third Tuesday of the month at 9,00 p.m. in piazza Palazzo di Città .
website ∙ pictures ∙ facebook
In the next years, Porta Nuova, one of Turin railway stations, will loose its utility due to the new underground train line and will remain out of the train paths because new other stations will born. This way, Porta Nuova stop, with its area of 200.000 square meters occupyed by rails is waiting for new possible uses. According to the official projects the station will be transformed in a shopping center and residential buildings will be built in the actual rails area. In 2006 Maurizio Zucca, a local architect, proposed to use the huge area of Porta Nuova bringing some sea in Turin with a water basin suitable for swimming instead of the abandoned rails and transforming the valuable building of Porta Nuova in a spa, in order to offer hot baths during the long winters. In last years the project was approved by the thousands of Turin inhabitants convened in a support commitee, quite important for all local and national newspapers (and also some international ones), together with radio and publishing houses. It’s a shame that the only ones who are ignoring all this are pubblic administrators, who are not answering to the open letters and are acting as if nothing was happening, making a fool of themselves.
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