Bucharest choking on traffic

Plans for a motorway across Bucharest are meeting with opposition because they involve the tearing down of a number of listed buildings. Several non-governmental organisations plan to take legal steps to prevent this. The daily Evenimentul Zilei sees the plans of the city's mayor as completely behind the times: "Several decades ago urbanism in the Western world reverted to a human scale and rediscovered the value of the fabric of the city, the functionality of which has been proven over the centuries. … The most attractive capitals in Europe today are those where the old parts of town are creatively reproduced 'with character', with small streets, squares … and an infrastructure that sets these priorities: first pedestrians, then cyclists, then public transport and then cars. Tearing down the most important area around the Matache Square to build a four-lane motorway is precisely the kind of mistake the West has been assiduously avoiding for 20 or 30 years because it has realised that this causes the city to become choked up with cars."

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