From bad to worse. Chaos calls for chaos in a city, Cagliari, which seems to have - in the minds of those who administer it, politicians and bureaucrats - a declared enemy: the motorist. Road accidents are children of the imponderable, even if cabin stress must have some contributing factor. One construction site doesn't close and ten others open. Long live the spending of public money (ours), long live the streets teeming with bulldozers and workers. Few everywhere, in truth, also due to the wicked legislation (those who govern the cities have nothing to do with this) of maximum-reduction tenders, which prevents (perhaps) work from being carried out at night (see the bumps in the most at-risk roads) . Or perhaps simply due to the failure to verify compliance with the specifications. Is there a lack of coordination or direction? Or maybe there is, and that would be worrying.
A city hostile to motorists, we were saying. Sidewalks that expand - it's not clear for what crowds of pedestrians - and, consequently, parking lots that disappear. All this while the multi-storey buildings remain closed: via Caprera, via Sauro. We will open in January, they promised from the Palazzi. They're closed. And the station car park, surrounded by a road system revolutionized three years ago, waiting for a train called the metropolitan with great fanfare? Hell, with entry and exit on the same road. In a normal city someone would have closed it for just cause: security, especially on Saturday evenings, is a joke. Nobody sees, nobody provides, not even the police, in other very severe circumstances.
A vision is missing, or maybe there is. Maybe it's this: walk or take a bus. Get around by bike or ride a scooter. Or take – who knows when – the legendary subway, a thirty-year-old project.
We need a project, we need a cultural change, we need dialogue. The car, like it or not, will be part of our everyday life for a long time to come. There is no need to increase the width of a sidewalk from two to ten meters. Just as placing metal posts everywhere does not help road safety, it is a dangerous trap. Welcome to Cagliari.
Emanuele Dessì