Ecopass Milan
As you may have read/seen, Milan’s council has introduced its own brand of pollution limitation measure, know as ‘Ecopass’. Basically, to enter the central area of Milan by vehicle between 7:30am and 7:30pm from Monday to Friday, as of 2nd January 2008, it is necessary to pay for and display an Ecopass ticket.
The price of said ticket varies from 2 to 10 Euros, depending upon the ‘Euro’ class of your wheels. In simple terms, cars with super low polluting engines will pay 2 Euros a day, whereas if you have a super polluting runabout, you will have to fork out 10 Euros to enter the centre. But there is more, if you have a very old car(petrol or diesel pre-Euro , or a pre-Euro scooter or motorbike, then you cannot even buy an Ecopass until the 15th April. I’m not sure what you need to do if you have one of these vehicles and live within the Ecopass area – sprout wings, I guess.
Well, I don’t need the wings, as I have no car, or pre-Euro vehicle, so I don’t need to worry about the Ecopass. Well, although I will not worry about buying the things, I will, instead, hope that pollution levels fall, in what appears to be a horribly fumy city.
Today, I had to cross Milan from outside the Ecopass zone, to somewhere well within it. I was a little curious to see whether traffic levels had been reduced as a result of these things. So, were they? A little, I would say. Although rush hour traffic, seemed pretty much like it was before the Ecopass came along. It is early days yet though, even if today was the first ‘real’ test of the scheme.
I shall watch carefully, and note whether the buses and trams move more fluidly than before, and whether waiting times for buses et al, reduce. We’ll see.
Apparently, the ever ingenious commuters are climbing out of bed earlier and arriving in the Ecopass area before 7:30 in the morning, in order to avoid paying for a pass. Then, I imagine that they will stay at work until 7:30pm before heading for home. For most manager/professional types, this will not be much of a problem, as most of them work until 8 or much later. For the rest, I don’t know. It depends a lot on their wallets and stamina.
Then again, it remains to be seen just how long the enthusiasm for enforcing this scheme will last. The Ecopass may go the same way as the ‘anti-dog-poo on the pavement initiative’, which, judging by the amount of excrement on the side walks here, appears to have died the death.
But then again, the pollution levels here could well be leading to the premature death of many of the city’s population, so this Blogger in Milan hopes that this scheme actually has some effect.
Here is some information in English about the Ecopass
I don’t dislike the idea, but I think that the Ecopass is a little premature, if it’s purpose is to reduce traffic and pollution, instead of milking some money from commuters: Milan needs more mass transit, more trains, more underground lines or at least more reserved bus lanes, and more parkings outside the Spanish Walls, near some major stop, before people can leave the car outside the city centre. I live in the south-west, at Corsico, near Porta Genova. I too don’ have a car (nor I wonat one), so I take mass transit. There are five bus lines and a train that we can use to go to Milan, but during rush hours the trip by bus takes up to three times the normal travel time, and the train runs once every hour, rarely on time.
How many typing errors I made! I realy need to learn to write slowly. I’m too addicted to the edit funcion on forums
Hi Cristian,
Thanks for dropping in.
I’m not sure about the Ecopass thing being premature, more like a bit too late. That said, it’s here now, and although it is milking money from commuters, hopefully, the money will go towards improving the mass transit systems to which you refer.
Personally, I’d like to see the Ecopass area made even larger – BUT only if the mass transit systems are considerably improved. In theory, the Ecopass will make it easier for buses and trams to move around. Incidentally, the driver of a taxi I took on Thursday said that traffic levels were down.
Moving back to the transport systems, Milan also needs many more parking areas on the edge of the city, so that commuters can leave their cars there and use the metro etc to get to work. Free car parking would be best, too.
And keeping as many cars as possible out of the centre will also mean that mass transit moves much more efficiently, and could possibly turn out to be more convenient that using a car (no parking fines, no problems finding and paying for parking spaces etc).
With a little luck your trip into Milan and back may become quicker. We’ll see.
All the best,
Alex
PS Your writing is good. Yes, there are some typos, but slowing down and using a spell checker, like the one I use which is built into Firefox, will make a lot of difference.
I agree with Alex. don’t think it’s premature. I’m not sure the area should be made bigger (especially as I live just outside the area
) but I think there are too many exceptions. They should have included all forms of (polluting) transport, including motorbikes and mopeds.
Before I was working in the Hinterland, I always used public transport which I find very good. Now, however, I find I cannot easily get to work without a car. Lots of buses, trains, etc. into town – not so many out of town. Still, at the weekend, unless we have to leave Milan, we never use the car. Why would you when the public transport can get you where you want to go?
I tried to get some info on this ecopass but the sites that explain the fees are all in Italian! I have a euro 4 engine and I understood that it is in Class 2 which makes it free for me to enter the ecopass area! Am I wrong?
Does anyone know? THX!
Benj,
The following is an except from the Ecopass site with the relevant sections translated into English:
Hanno accesso libero: Can access the Ecopass area freely (no payment required)
2. auto e veicoli merci a benzina Euro 3 e Euro 4 o più recenti – petrol cars/goods vehicles that are Euro 4 or Euro 3 or a more recent class
3. auto e veicoli merci diesel Euro 4 o più recenti con filtro antiparticolato omologato – diesel cars/goods vehicles that are Euro 4 or a more recent class – with an antiparticle filter
4. auto e merci diesel Euro 4 senza filtro antiparticolato omologato (esentati per tre mesi a partire dal 2 gennaio 2008) – diesel cars/goods vehicles that are Euro 4 or a more recent class that are without an antiparticle filter (are exempt for three months starting from the 2 January 2008)
In summary, if you have an Euro 4 petrol or diesel car, you do not have to pay. On the other hand, diesel Euro 4 cars without a special filter do not have to pay for the first three months of 2008, then, I imagine, a payment will need to be made, unless you can have a filter fitted, possibly.
Hope that helps – but do check that my translations/interpretations are correct – I do not want to be responsible for you getting a fine!
All the best,
Alex
[...] a car-hire place, etc. etc.) and even that was too much, as the site crashed on the first day. In Milan, there’s over 800 places to pay, and online too. Throughout Lombardy it’s possible to [...]