The Miracle Of Milan: Taming Car Use With Paint And Ping-Pong – Forbes
Carlton Reid
Milan’s Piazza Aperte (“open squares”) program is big into ping-pong.
Bloomberg Associates
Campaign to restrict car use and you’re dead in the water, politicians once feared. Not so much now, as demonstrated by mayoral elections in London, Paris, Bogotá, and many other world cities, including Milan.
Business executive Giuseppe Sala won 42% of the vote when, in 2016, he became Mayor of Milan, promising to transform Italy’s second most populous city for the better. He took space away from cars and handed it instead to people. During the pandemic, his administration added cycleways to main travel corridors and, through the Piazza Aperte (“open squares”) program, starting in 2018, it created 38 pop-up community plazas.
Sala was re-elected last year, increasing his share of the vote by nearly 20 points. Taming car use is popular, Sala and other mayors are proving.