Oslo aims to make city center car-free within four years [View all]

(Reuters) Cars will be banned from central Oslo by 2019 to help reduce pollution, local politicians said on Monday, in what they said would be the first comprehensive and permanent ban for a European capital.

The newly elected city council, made up of the Labor Party, the Greens and the Socialist Left, said the plans would benefit all citizens despite shopowners' fears they will hurt business.

"We want to have a car-free center," Lan Marie Nguyen Berg, lead negotiator for the Green Party in Oslo, told reporters.


"We want to make it better for pedestrians, cyclists. It will be better for shops and everyone."

Under the plans, the council will build at least 60 kilometers of bicycle lanes by 2019, the date of the next municipal elections, and provide a "massive boost" of investment in public transport. ...............(more)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/19/us-norway-environment-oslo-idUSKCN0SD1GI20151019