The city of Visby, situated on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, is an ancient historical site, and the inner city is surrounded by a 3.5 km long ring wall with gates. As a result of tourism, motor traffic through the gates increases heavily during the summer months, from the beginning of June to the middle of August, from around 20,000 vehicles/day to 30,000. The need for traffic reduction has been discussed during the 1960's and 1970's. Since 1987 motor traffic has been banned during the summer months except for so called "legitimate traffic". A special survey was carried out in June-August 1989 including police controls. The following results and conclusions are given: a) the restriction has reduced the car traffic by around 40%; b) data from interviews and traffic counts show that around 40% of private motor car drivers in the inner city may be considered as non-legitimate. This means that a further reduction of 5,000 vehicles is possible, equal to 1/3 in total traffic; c) a positive road safety effect has been shown. The environmental effect was considered to be very slight as motor traffic has increased on surrounding streets; d) a special symbol for legitimate drivers should be introduced to facilitate better control; and e) the inner city should be declared as an "environmental zone" where only pro-environmental cars should be allowed. (A)
Abstract