Parking cars are prohibited, in Milan there are over 60,000 of them in a single day

The first census of cars prohibited from parking in the city highlights a problem that also involves Turin and Rome, where 1,500 fines are issued per day.

Do our cities need more parking or fewer cars?For civic campaign activists “Do you know 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 mapped the almost 4,000 streets of the city from 6pm to 1am to count all the cars that were illegally parked or parked incorrectly.The result of the initiative “Free Way” it was surprising: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 highlighted, which is to the detriment of safety and of liveability of urban centres;a phenomenon of previously unknown dimensions and now considered normal by many citizens.All in a city, Milan, which has 49 cars per 100 inhabitants and a decidedly high number of parking spaces:22 per 100 inhabitants, compared to 7 Barcelona and the 6 of 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 theme 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 passes 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 the blue lines remains the most frequent infringement, followed by parking prohibited from stopping and parking at an intersection.TO Rome, However, from January to March this year, 129,000 fines for prohibited parking have already been imposed: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 the fines being tripled in one year, from just over 500 per day to 1,500.