Residents of Milan, the industrial core of the Italian economy, are now being asked to leave their cars at home and use the public transport system in an effort to cull widespread congestion.
According to the Financial Times, People who comply and are enrolled in the “Park Your Car and Go Public!” project will receive an SMS voucher that’s worth €1.50.
That’s the equivalent of a mass transit ticket for the day. They receive a voucher for each day their car is parked at home between 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM.
Those monitoring are able to keep track of which cars are moving and which aren’t by installing a small device behind the dashboard.
Other measures are also due to be taken or are already in effect: congestion charge zones, car sharing, and they even tried to enforce a full ban on cars between certain hours, although this was met with hostility by drivers and never caught on…
The idea is definitely good and would serve some other cities with congestion problems really well. It’s not hard to implement this with future connected cars either, and it in itself could be a feature they provide over conventional cars.