Iona Napier
ECO-WARRIORS are celebrating after Madrid’s left-wing mayor slashed speed limits on the city’s main roads to fight pollution.
Thousands of commuters, however, were less thrilled to find themselves trapped in long tailbacks when the limit dropped from 90kmh to 70kmh.
It comes after the city’s nitrogen dioxide levels were revealed to be well above the EU guidelines, with almost half Madrid’s measuring points recording dangerous pollution levels.
Recently elected Mayor Manuela Carmena is leading by example and takes public transport to work each day.
If the situation continues, non-residents will be banned from leaving their cars in the city centre.
Property prices are increasing in Madrid they say. They can keep it lol.
Diesel. Simples… Going more slowly won’t do much good. Bring on hydrogen power, start with the buses, then severely restrict private transport.
Time to punish the diesels. Way too many on the roads here and most of them never been serviced in their lives. Why should the considerate petrol drivers be hit? They are not causing the problem here.
Madrid is flat and Madrillanos are pretty fat. Cycling makes you fit and is superb for the heart and lungs but the Spanish as a whole don’t like exercise. Unlike the Germans, Danes or the Dutch. For them it’s not a question of money but common sense.
Beijing was once a city with clean air because apart from the party bigwigs everyone cycled.
The consumistic brainwashing which all of us are suffering, results in an urbanistic planning specifically aimed for the use of cars.
To ride a bicycle in Madrid is an activity so suicidal as to play to the russian roulette, the only difference is that finishing in a cemetery for a cyclist requires many months and for a russian roulette player only some minutes.