Prague 1 reintroduces night ban on vehicles in defiance of Prague City Hall
Prague 1 is fighting a lone battle against nighttime noise pollution. The city council has reintroduced a nighttime ban on vehicles entering certain streets from 10pm till 6 am in order to lower the excessive noise disturbing residents in the city centre. Prague City Hall, which invalidated such a ban last year, has said it will leave it in place for the time being.
Living in the historic city centre around Prague’s Old Town Square has a lot of advantages –life in a breathtakingly beautiful historic environment, at a walking distance from restaurants, bars, theatres and museums, in the heart of the city’s social life and infrastructure. However, the downside stems from pretty much the same things – noise from pubs, bars, restaurants and tourists determined to make the most of their stay in Prague. Noise pollution plagues the locals until the early morning hours, all night and every night, and under growing pressure to act, the administration of Prague 1 has been pushing for restrictive measures.
Last week it reinforced a nighttime ban on entry for vehicles in Králodvorská, Dlouhá, Soukenická, Kozí, Pařížská, Břehová and Revoluční streets as well as the Dvořák river embankment. The ban is valid from 10pm until 6am and only local residents, caterers or taxis are exempted from it. Although street signs are up everywhere, many drivers take no notice until they are stopped by a municipal police patrol.
The fine for entering a no-go zone is up to 2,000 crowns, but in the first days of the ban officers tend to be lenient and either issue warnings or very low fines. While many drivers claim they were unaware of the ban and failed to notice the respective sign, police argue that the signs are prominently placed and that the information is already in most GPS systems.
Prague 1 Mayor Terezie Radoměřská engaged in a heated dispute with Prague City Hall over the measure. She enforced it last year, but Prague City Hall invalidated it in a matter of days in a review procedure, arguing that it had not been discussed in advance with the mayors of the surrounding districts. Prague 1 says it has now met all the requirements and has reinforced the ban once more.
Vojtěch Ryvola, Prague 1 councilor for transport, says the municipality wants to evaluate the effectiveness of the measure in six months’ time.
“If this is not enough then we may have to add something more, like installing retractable columns.”
Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda remains critical of the ban, and the fact that the municipality is acting on its own. He says that while Prague City Hall is sensitive to the needs of all of the city’s districts, it has to keep in mind the needs of the metropolis as a whole and argues that individual districts should not take matters into their own hands.
However Adam Scheinherr, a former Prague deputy mayor for transport, has come out in defense of Prague 1, saying the Prague leadership has offered no real solution to a problem that has plagued Prague residents for years and the hardest hit by noise pollution are undoubtedly those living in the heart of the city.
