Opposition LMP called on the Budapest city council on Tuesday to keep Chain Bridge free of cars even after the bridge’s ongoing revamp is finished.
Lawmaker Bernadett Bakos told a press conference that it would be a great step towards a “more livable and likeable” city centre if only cyclists, buses and vehicles with special markings were allowed to use the bridge, and pedestrians, once the pavement is finished.
Making Chain Bridge car-free as a result of an ongoing revamp project “would not be a big loss to drivers but it would be a huge gain for public transport and cyclists”, she said.
The government is threatening the city council and the “car lobby” has also been exercising pressure, Bakos said. Yet, experience from before the revamp project showed that the narrow Chain Bridge hit by permanent traffic jams accounted for merely 4 percent of the total traffic of Budapest bridges, she added.
It will cause no disruptions to car traffic in the city if Chain Bridge is kept car-free but it will be a great opportunity for “much greener public transport”, Bakos said.
As we wrote a few weeks ago, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony reopened the capital city’s landmark Chain Bridge undergoing reconstruction to buses, taxis, motorbikes and bicycles, details HERE.
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Yes – the positives outweigh the negatives.
The positives muchly “tinged” with selfishness – driven by personal convenience, dismissing environmental “need” – the fact that public buses, bikes, motor bikes are permitted, and WALKING it – should be MARKETED.
Promotion and encouragement, from the views offered in walking the Chain Bridge of Buda or Pest – Magnificent, without the constant noise, pollution, to a degree danger, that Private Motor Vehicles, by there presence can be to the Public.
Yes – the POSITIVES muchly outweigh the negatives – to keep the magnificently restored, an ICON – not just of Budapest, Hungary but Europe, possible globally, keep it Car FREE.