Night traffic gets banned in the old town of Prague

Residents couldn’t handle the noise pollution anymore

Prague’s Old Town district, also known as Prague 1, has banned nighttime traffic on its territory, in effect as of 24 July. The reason for the restriction is to provide a more peaceful sleep for residents of the neighbourhood and to improve their overall quality of life.

The new decree prohibits entry into the Old Town area around Dlouhá Street between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The ban applies to all motor vehicles, except those of traffic attendants. Traffic signs are being changed on the streets of the historic district to indicate the new regulation.

This happened against the wish of the city’s mayor though

The restriction, however, has put the district mayor and the city mayor at odds.

The thing is, Prague 1 already tried to implement this ban last year in November but it didn’t go down well with the city’s administration. The mayor of the Czech capital, Bohuslav Svoboda, overturned the decision and invalidated the installed signs. His argument went that the measures had not been adequately discussed.

As it turns out, eight months later the mayor’s stance has not changed one bit and he still disagrees with this arguing that while the district residents’ needs had to be taken into account so have to be the needs of the overall metropolis.

This time around, however, the district authorities were better prepared for this, or so they claim. They had used the past months to hold several consultations with the city’s transportation department, mayor’s office, and surrounding districts.

The reality, however, is that the ban mirrors the one attempted last year, so the two sides remain in disagreement. The opposition parties at the city council were unsure which side to support or criticize, with one former deputy mayor saying that since the ruling coalition had not offered an alternative solution to the problem that left the district no option but to proceed with its original plan.