A bitter awakening this morning for the residents of via Moravia, in Barracca Manna: dozens of fines appeared on the windshields of cars parked on the sidewalk.
A practice consolidated over time, explain the inhabitants, who now find themselves sanctioned after years of apparent tolerance.
"We all know what the Highway Code says," admits Donatella Faedda, one of the fined residents, "but it's nothing new here: we've been parking on the sidewalk for at least twenty years. At the time there was a wave of fines, then everything stopped. It's as if a tacit agreement had been created with the Municipality."
The reason? "The streets are so narrow," adds Faedda, "that if we parked regularly, the garbage trucks and public transport wouldn't be able to get through. So, since there isn't much traffic, we've always used one side of the street and the sidewalk to leave the cars near the house. Also because there are no valid alternatives."
A situation that many define as "Kafkaesque" and that now risks rekindling in open conflict. Several residents have already written to the local police asking for clarifications and above all solutions, also because the risk that tomorrow there could be another fine waiting for them when they wake up is high.
"We are preparing a petition that we will send to the mayor, Massimo Zedda, to the councilor for traffic, Yuri Marcialis and to the local police themselves", announces Patrizia Casti, "these are unjustified sanctions. In the absence of alternatives we are forced to park like this, the road layout under construction does not allow parking completely on the roadway without creating an obstacle to traffic" and specifies that "the area is exclusively residential, with limited traffic and no public services that require extensive pedestrian use of the sidewalks".