Cremona Sera – Chaos on market days in Piazza Marconi, could it have been worse? Of course yes: now it is the wild west of cars, which also emerge from Via Albertoni. Skyrocketing pollution and frantic nerves

Could it have been worse? Of course. And that’s exactly what was done by an administration that has always washed its hands of the road problems in Piazza Marconi (connected to access to the parking garage), let’s face it clearly.

For years, CremonaSera has been highlighting the regular traffic jams that are created on market days in Piazza Marconi, right in the unfortunate corner where the roundabout leading to the car park stands, with queues, cars blocked, engines revving happily in the face of pollution and motorists glued to their horns. The problem has been highlighted several times, not without underlining how the presence of local police officers, in these cases, is close to zero.

Yet nothing. Actually, worse. Now, with the work underway in Piazza della Pace and Via Gonfalonieri, it has become necessary to move some market stalls. So far, nothing wrong: the works are necessary and the presence of market stalls is therefore incompatible with construction sites. As always, what is perplexing (to use a euphemism) is the solution identified to “solve” (quote) the problem.

What was the brilliant idea? Move the desks to via Monteverdi, up to the corner with via Cerasa, just before the arcades under which the Telco is located, so to speak. In this way, cars arriving from via Ala Ponzone can no longer drive to the end of the street and then head towards the car park, since via Monteverdi is blocked by market stalls. And what did they plan to do? To require cars coming from Corso Vittorio Emanuele II to arrive halfway along Via Ala Ponzone and then turn right onto the narrow Via Albertoni, the side street located right at the entrance to Via Tibaldi, a stone’s throw from the access to the car park .

Ergo, the corner with the unfortunate roundabout that leads to the parking garage has gone from chaos to total entropy on market days for a few weeks. As always, a line of cars comes from Piazza Marconi (arriving from Via Platina), then runs along the porticoes of the Agricultural Consortium and reaches the fateful corner with Via Tibaldi. Those who want to access the underground car park inevitably find themselves in queues, as has been the case for years. Only now, after the brilliant idea, this chaotic situation is joined by the flow of cars emerging from via Tibaldi coming from via Ala Ponzone and after having traveled along via Albertoni (which in turn has become a small gas chamber).

Result: two flows of cars come face to face, intending to access the car park or, simply, to continue in the direction of via Belfuso. What emerges, as can be seen from the photos taken this morning, is a double track, a sort of triangle of cars corresponding to the access of via Tibaldi (systematically violated by non-resident motorists, moreover), with a doubling of queues , cars blocked with their engines running in defiance of the statistics that make Cremona the second most polluted city in Europe, crazy horns and motorists on a war footing. Not to mention the usual cars parked – illegally – on the pavement right in front of the entrance to the car park, which do nothing but further restrict passage, increasing confusion and waiting times and traffic flow.

In short, a picture which is an understatement to define as insane and which aggravates a situation already compromised and never managed by the administration. Queues along the side of Piazza Marconi that runs alongside the Consortium, queues along Via Albertoni, clogging of the funnel at the entrance to Via Tibaldi with cars facing each other as if it were a Sergio Leone-style duel. Skyrocketing pollution, noise, frantic nerves.

The writer certainly cannot define himself as a traffic expert, let’s be clear, but the question, as they say, arises spontaneously: but wasn’t there an alternative solution that wouldn’t aggravate a now full-blown problem? If there was, all that remains is to conclude that a superficial choice was made to make this sector even more chaotic on market days.

The environment thanks, the roads too and the nerves of motorists and residents thank them in turn. Local police officers on site to at least try to manage the crossed traffic flows? Zero.

The important thing is – during elections – to fill your mouth with daring promises and be fooled by what has been done (sic) to improve the quality of life and above all the air of Cremona.