Do our cities need more parking or fewer cars? For the activists of the civic campaign “Do you know what you can?” there is no doubt about the answer: we need to reduce the number of vehicles in circulation. In recent days they have mobilized 2,000 people on the streets of Milan, divided into 800 teams, who from 6pm to 1am mapped the almost 4,000 streets of the city to count all the cars that were illegally parked or parked incorrectly. The result of the initiative “Free Way” it was astonishing: 63,990 “illegal” vehicles in a single night.
Thus cars take away public space from citizens
A carpet of cars as big as the entire Piazza Duomo, multiplied 32 times. Or like 77 football fields. Public space taken away from people, activists have highlighted, which is to the detriment of safety and of livability of urban centres; a phenomenon of previously unknown dimensions and now considered normal by many citizens. All this in a city, Milan, which has 49 cars per 100 inhabitants and a decidedly high number of car parks: 22 per 100 inhabitants, compared to 7 in Barcelona and 6 in Paris.
Of the almost 64 thousand vehicles registered, 37 thousand were parked illegally on the road (in double rows, at intersections or on pedestrian crossings), 15 thousand on pavements and 11 thousand on green areas, for example under trees. “The data that has emerged is frightening – they explained Bianca Uberti Foppa And Alberto Gianera of “Do you know you can?” – especially considering that a time slot was chosen that underestimates the phenomenon, which is greater during the daytime, but which allowed for the maximum possible participation of people”.
“Malasosta”, sanctions tripled in Rome in just one year
The topic does not only concern urban decorum and safety, but also has important implications from the point of view economic. For the Municipality of Milan this is a loss of revenue of 5.3 million in a single night, if we calculate the 84 euro fine for the parking ban multiplied by 64 thousand cars. With that money, for example, 134 thousand monthly public transport season tickets could be financed, or 6 thousand annual nursery school fees.
But the problem obviously does not only concern Milan. TO Turin, for example, in the first five months of this year, 222,710 fines have already been issued for wild parking, or over 1,500 fines per day, an increase compared to 2023: failure to pay on blue lines remains the most frequent infringement , followed by parking when stopping and parking at an intersection. TO Romehowever, from January to March this year, 129,000 fines have already been imposed for prohibited parking: the crackdown announced by the Capitol in view of the Jubilee on parking in preferential lanes, on yellow lines and in spaces reserved for disabled people has led to a tripling of fines in a year, from just over 500 per day up to 1,500.
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