From a necessity, transport has to become a choice. An electric bus with 150 places is preferable to 150 cars in a queue. It doesn’t pollute and it gets there quicker. Working from home or from a specially equipped area near your own home is better than travelling fifty miles a day to get to the office. And it is possible today. It isn’t Utopia. With the Internet and by tele-working, it is possible to stay STILL for nearly all of the office jobs. By investing in public services and not in private traffic, it is possible today. It isn’t Utopia. Giving incentives to the motor car is anti-historical. A means of transport that is not safe, inefficient and costly. The car driver has the choice of having a crash straight away (estimate of 7,000 deaths in 2009) or dying of pollution from the CO2 a bit later. Transport needs rethinking. It cannot be a business in itself. Everything that can be produced locally must not be transported. The most modern form of transport was invented by our great grandfathers: it’s called a bicycle. All the urban centres of Italy have to be able to be driven in by bicycles, safely. Fast trains are not needed. Efficient trains on all the existing tracks are needed. To improve the lives of millions of commuters who are travelling like animals. The Messina Bridge and the TAV {fast train} in Val di Susa are Great Works of the past, like the Pyramids or the Coliseum. They are only useful for dilapidating public money. The only ones to get benefits from them are the constructors, the lobbies and the parties. Bicycle, non-polluting public transport, tele-working, efficient connections between different means of transport, local production. On 4 October 2009, a Movement of People will be brought into being, in which every person will have a weight, without local Mafia bosses, “mandamenti”, sections, provincial structures, regional structures, cards, factions. The programme of the Movement will be presented under 7 headings: Energy, Health, Transport, Economy, Information, Education and the State and the citizens. Today I am publishing the proposal for “Transport” to get your feedback.

TRANSPORT

- provide disincentives for the use of private motorized transport in urban areas
-develop a network of protected cycle tracks throughout the whole urban area and beyond
-set up spaces in the condominiums for parking bicycles
- set up spaces for parking bicycles in urban areas
- introduce a heavy tax for private cars with only one person inside, entering a historic centre
- strengthen public transport for collective use and public transport for individual use (car sharing) with electric motors fed through a network
- immediately block the Messina Bridge and the TAV in Val di Susa
-prohibit the construction of new car parks in urban areas
- develop rail tracks connected to commuter routes
- cover the whole country with Broadband
- give incentives for the companies that use tele-working
- provide a system of efficient connections between different forms of public transport
- provide incentives for “welcome” structures for offices at various points across the territory, all connected via Internet
- provide incentives for local markets with produce coming from the territory
- have lanes reserved for public transport in urban areas
- oblige towns to have a mobility plan for people with disabilities

Previous points: Energy, State and citizens, Information and Economy