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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday December 26 2018, @04:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the whoa-nellie dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Oslo Puts Up a Stop Sign

If you drive a car into the city center of Oslo next month, you shouldn't plan on staying long: There won't be any parking spots.

The Norwegian capital is in the process of eliminating the remaining 700 street parking spots in its city center by the end of 2018 as part of its plan to turn the area into a car-free zone.

"We're doing this to give the streets back to the people," Hanna Elise Marcussen, Oslo's vice mayor for urban development, said during a recent phone interview. "And of course, it's environmentally friendly." (The Scandinavian country, recently recognized as one of the world's most ecologically progressive nations, has plans to become carbon neutral by 2030 and halt the sale of fossil fuel cars by 2025.)

And it's not just Oslo that is turning away drivers. Popular tourist destinations across the globe are removing cars from heavily trafficked areas to reduce congestion, cut down on pollution, and make streets more welcoming to bikers and pedestrians.


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26 2018, @07:39PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26 2018, @07:39PM (#778669)

    been there done that

    Some Italian cities began experimenting with limited traffic zones since the 90s, and reduced the free parking zones till paying for parking became akin to paying a tax, more than acquiring a premium service. Coincidentally, this happened with the rise of malls at the outskirts. Coincidentally, my city has a big event blocking the entire center in september (when people return from the vacation or students start residing, and start forming their shopping habits) and in december (Xmas shopping galore). Of course the public transport has seen a decline with bigger buses (unsuitable for the streets) and less frequency. Other cities underwent similar transformations, you get there with no navigator, follow the street signs for the city center, and you do not reach it.

    Last year the new mayor decided to reopen some parts of the city center. It was met with protests which didn't look very spontaneous. It did not bring a significant increase in revenue for the shops, but closing the barn 20 years after the cows escape is not likely to cause an increase of cow presence either.

    Pollution did not seem to increase with the reopening, in my simplified model of the universe, each green spot in the city center means the formerly parked car taking up a spot somewhere else, meaning the formerly parked car in the other spot going elsewhere.

    The media seem oblivious to the result of these experiments.
    TLDR

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @05:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @05:44PM (#779053)

    Nice story bro. Just missing a few details... any details. Actually sounds like it came from Hannity and Coulter's Fairy Tales for Nutjobs.

    *citation needed*