Plans to create car-free areas in central Prague may be abandoned

Plans to make Prague’s Smetanovo nábřeží embankment and Malá Strana car-free once the tunnel Blanka goes into operation may not now go ahead, iDnes.cz reported. Turning the embankment and Malá Strana into pedestrian-only zones would cause transport problems elsewhere in the centre of the city, according to a report commissioned by City Hall and quoted by the news site. An experiment in which Smetanovo nábřeží, running from Charles Bridge to the National Theatre, was closed to cars for several Saturdays last autumn led to traffic jams in other places, while tram services had to be rerouted.