It is said that sometimes politicians can resort to many, even drastic and even grotesque, acts to prove the validity of their plans. In order to prove that the "City without cars" project works, a pedestrian count was carried out at... last year's FIFA World Cup. For what purpose? 

“City without cars” 

Oslo would like to prove that the plan to remove cars from the city works, which is why pedestrians were counted. What was it done for? To compare the data with the previous year and show what a colossal difference. However, nothing would indicate anything strange if it were not for the fact that the counting took place at a rather unusual moment, which was last year's Football World Cup. We are all well aware that at that time tens of thousands of people traveled to the city center to watch matches on large screens. Unfortunately, it is these data that have been compiled with the data from 2017. 

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Fake News in Oslo

The Green Party is the creator and biggest supporter of the "City without cars" project. Recently, during the presentation of the report, one of the party representatives, namely Hanna Marcussen, announced that the report and the data contained in it confirm that their "green policy" works. We didn't have to wait long for the answer because Carl Erik Krefting, who is the chairman of Byfolk, an association of real estate owners in Oslo, commented on Mrs. Marcussen's statement as follows: "This is terrifying fake news." 

Read also: European Green Capital 2019 - Høyre criticizes millions of expenses.

Sweco report

Sweco is the company responsible for preparing a report confirming the correct operation of the “City without cars” project. His data shows that traffic restrictions will be introduced car in Oslo led to an increase in the number of pedestrians by as much as 10% compared to the previous year. Ultimately, it cannot be denied that these numbers greatly distort the existing reality. 

What was done?

In order to remove a large number of cars in Oslo, many were liquidated parking spaces, as many as 350. Additionally, a large number were closed roads so that cars cannot enter the center of Oslo. 

Read also: Free communication all year round? This is a new proposal from the Green Party in Oslo

Bad preparation

Even the creator of the report, Sweco, admits that it is not perfect. The measurement of people was performed on two days, i.e. on June 16 and 19, in order to finally compare these results with two similar days from 2017. Attention should be paid to the fact that the days when pedestrian measurements were taken was the time when the Football World Cup was held, that is, when thousands of people were walking into the city center to watch the match. Sweco representatives add "the results of the survey carried out are very dependent on the conditions prevailing on a given day, and this also applies to special events, weather and other random factors." 

There are much less pedestrians

The truth, as it turns out, is different from what is presented in the Sweco report prepared at the request of the Green Party. Ultimately, the “City without Cars” project is failing because the Tall Promenaden Management agency measured pedestrians on Karl John Street. The measurement was made using a thermal imaging camera. It turns out that traffic in this place from February to December decreased by as much as 8% compared to last year, i.e. by 1.085.910 people. So, does “green policy” work?

The pedestrian measurement during the FIFA World Cup was to prove that the "City without cars" project is working and doing well! Does the Green Party realize that it is providing incorrect data, which is called "fake news"? Read the above article and you will learn how they wanted to prove the validity of green policy.