Stop at Zona-M

It’s weird how things that seem completely unrelated are, in fact, more or less connected. On February 5th, 2010, just five days after the traffic ban in Milan, with caused a storm of discussions, an absolutely unusual event, that is some inches of snow falling in full winter, created even more chaos than usual on the streets of Milan and all the surrounding area.

During that afternoon, the speakers of Caterpillar (a popular talk-show on a national radio station asked to all Milan citizens who were listening inside their cars to call and tell how long they had already been blocked in the streets and how long they thought they would still remain there.

On January 31st, 2010, Milan and a few neighbor areas declared a total traffic ban to reduce air pollution. Since such measures are already used in other countries or may be adopted in the coming years, the protests and questions raised in that occasion are useful to think about the real usefulness of traffic bans in general.

Walkability is a characteristic of homes and apartments that all their owners, or everybody considering (even in these times) buying a new house should know and think about.