Cheer up! On your way back from Copenhagen, swing through Bologna for a clue to a sustainable planet

Okay. COP15 has been pretty discouraging thus far. But this is no time to give up. To the contrary let's start this next phase by energetically expanding our horizons, finding more common ground with people, cities and groups around the world who wish to act. Here as one example of something you can see every day in your own city. The great neglected overarching transportation mode that is the alpha and omega for every trip we take, is getting a close look in an exhibit in Bologna starting tomorrow.

Following quick-tranlsated from Nuova Mobilità, 18 December 2009:

"I cannot meditate if I do not walk: as soon as I stop walking I stop thinking; my brain works only with the feet in motion" - Jean Jacques Rousseau.

The cartoons of Altan, Stain, Vauro, Giannelli, Julian and his words of Piero Angela, Massimo Gramellini, Licia Colò, Carlo Lucarelli are on show in Bologna from 19 December to 24 January to remind us that "We are all pedestrians."

Dante making his way through a "hell" of a busy road, Little Red Riding Hood going to visit her grandmother, preferring to walk through the forest rather than the roadway where the cars whizzing, because there "one meets more than the wolf." These are some of the scenarios, here a little 'grotesque' and there purely entertaining vignettes that illustrate the trials of pedestrians and their life so full of pitfalls. Yet "we are born to walk" and even he who is driving a car at one moment will soon open the door and once again become a "footman".

"We're all pedestrians" was inaugurated Saturday, December 19 at the Archiginnasio of Bologna illustrates the irony of the most vivacious Italian brushes and pencils, and in addition to a tear or bitter smile, invite you to reflect on and to adapt more responsible behavior on the roads.

In Italy, every year, over 600 pedestrians are killed and over 20,000 are injured. Among the most affected are the elderly, over 50% of the victims are more than 65 years. This massacre is not due either to chance or to fate; it can be reduced drastically: simply enforce the rules. It is to be noted that nearly 30% of pedestrians lost their lives while crossing the street on the strips.

Walking on Italian roads is not easy, while on the streets of other European countries the pedestrian is sacred. Besides the cartoons, even the faces and words of people who sign messages of good sense to invite to respect the pedestrian and to rediscover this ancient but often not considered a means of transportation: your feet.

This exhibition will present beside Massimo Gramellini Piero Angela, Carlo Lucarelli, Margherita Hack, Licia Colò, Vito and actors of "A Place in the Sun" Lucio Allocca and Germano Bellavia. Along with the texts of the poet Roberto Roversi, the philosopher Duccio Demetrio, the journalist Cristina Gabetti,and Franco Taggi, considered the greatest expert on road safety in Italy.

The cartoons are signed by Altan, Stain, Vauro, Giannelli, Rebora, Julian, Gomboli, Maramotti, Knight, Mausolus, Mencherini, Minoggio, Palumbo, Vitti, Zaniboni.
Centro Antartide, Osservatorio per l'educazione stradale e la sicurezza della Regione Emilia-Romagna, i sindacati dei pensionati Spi-Cgil, Fnp-Cisl e Uil, Ancescao, Comune, Provincia e Azienda Usl di Bologna, Auser, Archiginnasio, Legambiente
The initiative aims to help create a cultural environment that elicits sympathy and respect for pedestrians, because the city can not perceive them as obstacles on the roads of the driver but as "engine" of clean mobility. Mobility that is good for the health of humans and Earth. They who chose to walk neither pollute nor waste energy. The walker enjoys the streets and cityscapes like no other, stimulating even more their own good humor. To transform the street, you have to learn to love the street. And to love the street . . .

The exhibition "We're all pedestrians" is sponsored by: Antarctica Center, Center for road safety education and safety of the Emilia-Romagna, the unions of pensioners Spi-CGIL, CISL and UIL-Fnp, Ancescao, City, State and Company USL di Bologna, Auser, Archiginnasio, Legambiente with the sponsorship of the University of Bologna.

The exhibition will remain open at the Archiginnasio, Piazza Galvani 1, until 24 January. Opening Saturday, December 19, at 11. The exhibition can be visited also on the site www.siamotuttipedoni.it

Source: www.Piedibus.it

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If you wish to organize an exhibit in your city or neighborhood, get in touch with the editor of Nuova Mobilità Enrico Bonfatti at editor@nuovamobilita.org, who will be glad to put you in touch directly with the organizers.

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