Car stuff overseas

1. Milan introduced a congestion charge. They intend to use the money to expand other mobility options including transit, and improving the environment for cycling and walking. The intent of the program is to reduce cars by 30% in the center city as well as to reduce pollution by 10%. See "Congestion fee leaves Milan in a jam," from the London Times. Opposition forced the mayor to reduce the zone significantly, which will reduce its impact, and reduce the amount of money raised.

From the article:

More than half of Milan’s residents get around by car, scooter or motorcycle, with nearly 90,000 cars a day entering the centre. Rome and Turin, which operate “no-car” Sundays, are considering similar schemes. Many Italian towns and cities already have charge zones in their historic centres, but the varying restrictions cause confusion and some Italians evade them by driving in backwards, so that on camera they appear to be leaving.

In the zone

— Less than a third of journeys in Milan are made on public transport

— Milan has the third-highest number of cars per citizen among European cities, after Naples and Rome

— According to city officials, traffic on the first day of the scheme was 40 per cent lower than normal

Money raised will go towards buses, cycle paths and green vehicles

2. The London Times also reports on a proposal for a carsharing program in Paris that is modeled on the Vélib bicycle sharing program. See "Paris offers drivers electric cars to beat pollution - for a small charge."

The Vélib program requires that bikes be returned to another bike station, but it doesn't require that the bike be returned to its point of origin. That is the difference between Vélib and say a carsharing program like Zipcar.

Paris Mayor Delanöe proposes a similar program with electric cars,"Automobiles-en-Libre-Service" or "Voiturelib"– free car, and that cars can be left anywhere. (I guess people locate them via GPS.) This is an advantage over Zipcar.

But the system is criticized as possibly promoting car use over transit and other forms of mobility.

I wonder. It would be interesting to know more about the typical residents' type of trip. For example, a letter to the editor in a recent issue of the New Yorker made the point that most non-commuting trips are under 5 miles, and could be performed on bicycle as a result. If easier access to a car prevented people from buying them (although I would think the difficulty of parking in Paris would be enough of a disincentive, like in Manhattan), then the system is a good thing, probably, and definitely convenient.

(The carsharing article was brought to my attention by Sam Smith's Undernews blog.)