Bristol's Mayor hails impact of car-free Sunday event

Date: 24/6/2013

Bristol held the first in a series of five car-free Sundays over the course of the weekend, closing streets in the centre of the city to motorists between 09:00 BST and 18:00 BST.

Dubbed 'Make Sunday Special', Bristol's Mayor - George Ferguson - says the events are designed to make the central areas of the city more accessible to pedestrians.

"This is all about the people, cities are made up of people, not buildings and cars, and this is a wonderful demonstration and wherever I go I have been stopped by people being enthusiastic about it," he said.

However, the scheme was criticised by taxi drivers, who accused the Mayor of disrupting travel and limiting the options available to those who didn't want to go into the centre of Bristol.

"It's ridiculous. The passengers that want to go to the city centre, just the other side, they can't go there so you have to go all the way around," one driver told the BBC.

And with another claiming that the day caused considerable confusion on the roads, the event was not hailed as a success by all quarters.

Yet the Mayor maintained that doubters would eventually "come around" to the project, which will run monthly until October.

The initiative comes after Bristol's Mayor floated the idea that a low-emission zone could be introduced in the city in a bid to tackle high pollution levels.

Indeed, with current emissions currently exceeding EU requirements and Bristol facing the prospect of a fine as a result, the city could follow the example set by the likes of London and Norwich as it attempts to improve its air quality.

"Bristol should be considering bringing in the zones if we're going to meet the air quality requirements of the EU, which are not unreasonable and that we're not currently meeting," Mr Ferguson said.

Posted by Nick Anderson

International Transport News and Sustainable Transport News