Milan’s Ecopass is back from its Vacation

August 25, 2008 · Filed Under Milan · Comment

As Milan crawls slowly back to life after the summer recess, its Ecopass traffic anti-pollution charge comes back on-line.

A map of Milan’s Ecopass zone is shown in the following post.

Tags: driving in italy, ecopass, Information, Italy, Milan, zone

Milan’s Ecopass Goes on Vacation

July 23, 2008 · Filed Under Milan · Comment

Milan's Ecopasses

Milan’s Ecopass anti-pollution traffic charge is going to be put on hold throughout August 2008, Milan’s Mayor Moratti has recently promised. Note that this promise has not yet been turned into an official change in Ecopass policy.

This means that those coming to Italy who wish to visit Milan by car will probably not have to worry about how and where to pay this charge.

Be wary, though, of camera controlled areas in the centre of Milan that may well still be restricted to traffic, Ecopass or not.

If you do decide to spend a couple of days in Milan, and you stay in a hotel in the central part of the city, do remember to ask the hotel staff to report the details of your car, rented or not, to the local traffic authorities. This should help you avoid receiving a nice little fine some time later after your vacation here.

This temporary suspension of the Ecopass is a good idea, seeing as Milan is generally deserted in August, so traffic pollution levels will be at a minimum anyway, and not having to worry about these passes may encourage a few tourists to drop in, and maybe check out the vibrant night life down in the Navigli - Canal - area, which is just south of Milan city centre.

Nice move Mrs Moratti!

Tags: driving, ecopass, Information, Italy, Milan, Moratti, traffic

Milan’s Green Belt

March 5, 2008 · Filed Under Milan · Comment

I recently read an interesting article in Epolis Milano, one of Milan’s many freebie newspapers, and also one of the better ones, I might add.

This article was about the bods at City Hall who have dreamed up a scheme to cut down the smog levels under which Milan is drowning, despite the recent introduction of the Ecopass car charging system.

Now, you might think that the best way to cut down the pollution levels would be to simply ban all cars from the centre. Although this would be wonderful, it would, understandably, cause quite a few problems, and would not go down at all well with the car dependant Italians who inhabit this bustling city.

So, what can done? Well, apparently greenery and trees act as an effective filter and can help absorb many of the pollutants that are causing one person every 36 hours to head for hospital to have respiratory problems sorted out. So, some 500,000 trees are going to be planted.

Does this mean that Milan will become a forest? Possibly, I suppose. And , in addition to all the trees, the people at the top are planning to increase the proportion of green areas per head of the population to 19 square metres.

Whether these novel solutions will have any effect on reducing the still spiralling pollution levels remains to be seen, but a positive side-effect of the ‘forestation’ of the city will be the creation of a series of ‘green roads’ which will link each of the city’s larger park areas. This sounds very interesting, and, from looking at the illustrative photo in the newspaper, means that it may be possible to literally walk all the way round the city centre using these interconnected green ways.
It would also be nice if they installed cycle ways on the park-links too.

The deadline for this gush of greenery is 2015, which also just happens to be the year in which the Expo will be held in Milan.

Walking tours of Milan, anyone?

I hope this proposal does come to fruition, and actually works. It sounds like a jolly good pollution solution, if you ask me.

Tags: cars, city, ecopass, green areas, interest, interesting, Italia, Italian, Italians, Milan, Milano, news, Park, pollution, pollution sollution, problem, problems, trees, urban planning