As Smog Builds, 100+ Italian Cities Impose One-Day Car Bans

[hatrack]

ROME - Authorities banned traffic from more than 100 towns and cities across Italy, including Rome and Milan, in an effort to cut growing pollution levels, city officials say.


Partial blocks on cars and lorries have already been imposed in recent days in many places after health departments warned that prolonged calm weather had allowed smog to build.
With no improvement in sight, mayors decided they had to force car-mad Italians off the roads with a one-day ban.

"We had no alternative," newspapers quoted Rome mayor Walter Veltroni as saying. "We now have new (pollution) limits imposed on us by the regions who are following European norms and the weather conditions are not helping to disperse the smog."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23758/story.htm