₦airaland Forum

Ignazio Marino, who took over in June and rides his bicycle to work andmeetings instead of using an official car, last weekend permanently closed the area to private traffic in a move to turn the ancient forums into an archaeological park.

Marino’s push to make Rome’s oldest attractions more pedestrian friendly is part of a broader shift taking place in historically car-crazy Italy -- home to supercar makers Ferrari (F), Maserati and Lamborghini -- away from vehicle ownership toward pedal power and public transportation. Bicycle sales in 2011 edged past car deliveries for the first time in almost 50 years and in 2012 the gap widened to 200,000.
Driving the tectonic shift is the country’s longest economic recession since World War II, which has pushed auto demand to the lowest in more than 30 years. At the same time, Italian government efforts to ease congestion in big cities and along the famed autostradas has made public transport and bikes both faster and cheaper.

Congestion Charge
“It’s not just about the crisis; there is a structural change in the market which has started and no one can stop,” said Peter Fuss, a senior advisory partner at Ernst & Young in Eschborn, Germany. “You have both people who can’t afford any more to own a car and those, especially young people, who no longer have an interest in owning an auto.”
In Milan, drivers must pay a congestion charge of 5 euros ($6.64) to enter the central part of the city. Cyclists buzz around the Gothic cathedral on hundreds of yellow BikeMi two-wheelers rented from a bike-sharing program started in 2008.
Bankers, managers and fashionistas cross through the crowded Montenapoleone fashion district with the bikes, which posted a 32 percent increase in usage last year to 1.43 million rides. Milan plans to add 100 kilometers (62 miles) of bike lanes to reach a network of 240 kilometers in 2015, when the country’s financial capital hosts the World’s Fair.

Driving Exams

Italians bought 1.61 million bikes last year compared to 1.4 million cars. At the same time, the number of cars circulating on Italian roads fell by 35,026 in 2012 and the number of people taking the country’s driving exam plunged to the lowest in more than 20 years, according to data from the Anfia auto industry group and the Ministry of Transport.
Italy has been the out-lier in the European Union, where bikes have outsold cars since at least 2000. In Germany, the region’s biggest market for both bicycles and passenger vehicles, 4.05 million bikes were sold in 2011 compared with 3.17 million autos.
While car deliveries in Europe fell 8 percent to 13.2 million in 2011 from 14.3 million in 2008, bicycle demand was almost unchanged in the period at around 20 million a year, according to data from IHS Automotive and Coliped, the association of European bike parts & accessories suppliers.
With Italy adding more high-speed trains between bigger cities, public transport has for many become the mode of choice. Ridership on the state-owned railway’s fast connections increased 6.5 percent last year to 39.8 million passengers. A privately owned high-speed rail operator started up in 2012 to take advantage of the rising demand.

Lost Appeal
Autos have lost their appeal among young Italians in part because the millennial generation, as in other developed countries such as the U.S., is more interested in buying the latest tech devices as status symbols than owning a vehicle.
“If you don’t have to do long trips, having a car is totally unnecessary,” said Melania Serafini, who lives by Cesena near the Mediterranean coast. The 21-year-old doesn’t own a car and travels to work every morning by tram. “Public transport is faster and a monthly pass costs peanuts.”
With unemployment remaining close to a record high, car sales may decrease to 1.29 million this year, according to data from industry researcher IHS Automotive. That’s 48 percent below the market peak in 2007 of 2.5 million deliveries. Car sales won’t return to the 2 million-unit mark until at least 2020, IHS estimates.

The Rome mayor, who has plans to increase bike-sharing services and biking lanes in the capital, seems to have the support of many Italians for his efforts to reduce congestion.
Eugenio Galli, a human resource manager at a Milan bank, sold his Renault Clio (RNO) in 2008 and shifted to a bicycle for his commute to work, saving 250 euros a month in the process. He says that he has no intention to go back to owning an auto.
“I don’t miss my car,” said Galli, 46, who heads the biker association Fiab Ciclobby in Milan. “I ride my bike to work in all kinds of weather: rain, snow and wind and I like it. It helps me interact with what is around me.”

Ignazio Marino, who took over in June and rides his bicycle to work andmeetings instead of using an official car, last weekend permanently closed the area to private traffic in a move to turn the ancient forums into an archaeological park.

Marino’s push to make Rome’s oldest attractions more pedestrian friendly is part of a broader shift taking place in historically car-crazy Italy -- home to supercar makers Ferrari (F), Maserati and Lamborghini -- away from vehicle ownership toward pedal power and public transportation. Bicycle sales in 2011 edged past car deliveries for the first time in almost 50 years and in 2012 the gap widened to 200,000.
Driving the tectonic shift is the country’s longest economic recession since World War II, which has pushed auto demand to the lowest in more than 30 years. At the same time, Italian government efforts to ease congestion in big cities and along the famed autostradas has made public transport and bikes both faster and cheaper.

Congestion Charge
“It’s not just about the crisis; there is a structural change in the market which has started and no one can stop,” said Peter Fuss, a senior advisory partner at Ernst & Young in Eschborn, Germany. “You have both people who can’t afford any more to own a car and those, especially young people, who no longer have an interest in owning an auto.”
In Milan, drivers must pay a congestion charge of 5 euros ($6.64) to enter the central part of the city. Cyclists buzz around the Gothic cathedral on hundreds of yellow BikeMi two-wheelers rented from a bike-sharing program started in 2008.
Bankers, managers and fashionistas cross through the crowded Montenapoleone fashion district with the bikes, which posted a 32 percent increase in usage last year to 1.43 million rides. Milan plans to add 100 kilometers (62 miles) of bike lanes to reach a network of 240 kilometers in 2015, when the country’s financial capital hosts the World’s Fair.

Driving Exams

Italians bought 1.61 million bikes last year compared to 1.4 million cars. At the same time, the number of cars circulating on Italian roads fell by 35,026 in 2012 and the number of people taking the country’s driving exam plunged to the lowest in more than 20 years, according to data from the Anfia auto industry group and the Ministry of Transport.
Italy has been the out-lier in the European Union, where bikes have outsold cars since at least 2000. In Germany, the region’s biggest market for both bicycles and passenger vehicles, 4.05 million bikes were sold in 2011 compared with 3.17 million autos.
While car deliveries in Europe fell 8 percent to 13.2 million in 2011 from 14.3 million in 2008, bicycle demand was almost unchanged in the period at around 20 million a year, according to data from IHS Automotive and Coliped, the association of European bike parts & accessories suppliers.
With Italy adding more high-speed trains between bigger cities, public transport has for many become the mode of choice. Ridership on the state-owned railway’s fast connections increased 6.5 percent last year to 39.8 million passengers. A privately owned high-speed rail operator started up in 2012 to take advantage of the rising demand.

Lost Appeal
Autos have lost their appeal among young Italians in part because the millennial generation, as in other developed countries such as the U.S., is more interested in buying the latest tech devices as status symbols than owning a vehicle.
“If you don’t have to do long trips, having a car is totally unnecessary,” said Melania Serafini, who lives by Cesena near the Mediterranean coast. The 21-year-old doesn’t own a car and travels to work every morning by tram. “Public transport is faster and a monthly pass costs peanuts.”
With unemployment remaining close to a record high, car sales may decrease to 1.29 million this year, according to data from industry researcher IHS Automotive. That’s 48 percent below the market peak in 2007 of 2.5 million deliveries. Car sales won’t return to the 2 million-unit mark until at least 2020, IHS estimates.

The Rome mayor, who has plans to increase bike-sharing services and biking lanes in the capital, seems to have the support of many Italians for his efforts to reduce congestion.
Eugenio Galli, a human resource manager at a Milan bank, sold his Renault Clio (RNO) in 2008 and shifted to a bicycle for his commute to work, saving 250 euros a month in the process. He says that he has no intention to go back to owning an auto.
“I don’t miss my car,” said Galli, 46, who heads the biker association Fiab Ciclobby in Milan. “I ride my bike to work in all kinds of weather: rain, snow and wind and I like it. It helps me interact with what is around me.”

Nigerians live in their archaic idiotic beliefs,

what difference does it matter to you? what is your problem with people honoring the Blessed Mother of God?

you call it demonic and sinful , how do you define your day to day life? when you swear at your neighbor, when you pay the official a bribe to get the fast track? or when you even take a bribe,

did your bible not tell you not to judge? did Christ not warn against judging others?

now the hypocrite you are! you consider yourself JUST and PURE enough to judge,


shame on all you religious ignorant nonentities, Nigerians stick to the faith because they are filled with hate and they are bitter!

when you pray you place your arms against your neighbors house and call on the Holy Ghost fire et al

GOD is LOVE, and won't pour no fire on anyone of his creations no matter how bad they are, shame on you all

Cara ( Police)

Follow the Via ( deportation )

Germo ( Nigerians in Germany)

Yankee ( Nigerians in the US)

Guai ( trouble)

college ( prison)

some of you on these threads demonstrate an utterly abhorring level of ignorance, charge the Pope really?,
i bet my house n life savings if that comes accross, have y'all heard of Intl Treaties? do you know Catholics amount to more than 1.2 billion people in the wolrd ( 20 times bigger than all you Pentecostal mongrels put together),
the Vatican is not a signatory of the ICC so they have no right to think of stepping into the arms of st Peter's square,
and then, behind all these attacks on the Church, you may not know,
facts reveal Masonic hands r in them, No institution has pursued the secretive Masonery than the Catholic Chuch for which they tend to use every means to discredit the Pope and d congregation of Christ,
think before you say, and stop putting your utter ignorance to the bare son,
****d fellow that said cant wait till trial begins, i reccomend u get back to elementary school, u r fabulously ignorant

to back up my claim,

here's the link to the former episode i mentioned,
i trust they lack brains down there http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1580052/Black-South-Africans-forced-to-drink-urine.html

i wonder why this is not being taken up by anybody.

i saw this and went on to read the news online, i was going to puke!!

why would anybody wanna re-enact such horrible acts?
and those fat black bastards, pardon my language, no matter how much u get paid, going back to slavery? God help me,

i think South Africans either enjoy serving whites, or they are mentally incapacitated,

time ago--2 years i guess it was about 5 women wokring on a farm owned by whites, n they were fed pee for the whole time, they accepted,
now them fat baggers are there in a slavery wedding, no brains in south africa i CONCLUDE

when culture changes, it's no more culture
MY Igbo people say, '' ihe yiri ji, abughi ji''
that which resembles a yam is not yam,
it's either you have a culture, or you have none, there's no in between

Emofine that was funny lol trust me, was Jim havin an amnesia as well hahh

I invite you bros and sis to list the funniest quotes you can remember from Nigerian Commedy movies,
i know our actors can be funny sometimes, i saw this movie Big Blow on the Internet and Osuofia got me cracking loud
in the library, people looked at me strangely.
here are some

Son : Daddy, you can't just throw your tenants out like that without notice, it's unfair!

Osuofia : Son, what you have been hearing is just the Revised Standard Version of my life, if i tell you the King James Version of it you will convulse



Son : Daddy i think you should treat your tenants fair now, tomorrow i might end up a tenant myself you know;

Osuofia : My son, you have to stop thinking like a tenant, and start thinking like a landlord"


Osuofia to Tenant:: You child's cry won't let me sleep in the night, if you can't shup him up, put him to permanent Silent and reactivate him the following morning!

i hope you'l be kind enough to post yours!

NO, all of Nigeria instead should compliment and be proud of the Igbos,
History of a time not too far gone tells us of how the military government of then Nigeria alloed Igbo biz men
a return of just 20 N (twenty NAIRA) for their millions in banks all over Nigeria,
but yet, the Igbos are probably the most industrious and Biz minded people of Nigeria,
they made glory from the scrap of just 20Naira, lesson for you

It might sound a litle bit far fetched but ,
recent developments got me wondering if we Nigerians in any little way are really thinking.
Things aint working out in our nation, it's blatantly surpriding that a general election has brought
the nation to a blunt tilt.
Where are our lawmakers?
who's thinking of the young men and women, their fate? their dreams and aspirations?
the lection cycle is full of promises, but are you voting where your ''pocket'' leads you?
or where your head, mind body and soul directs you?
our system is so corrupt, what has money-sharing got to do with electing candidates?
what corruption are you campaigning to fight when you are busy distributing bundles of cash ?
stolen cash, with the promise of stealing back x50 if you are elected?
Wake up Nigerians, amongst these wolves could still be a lamb,
find that lamb and elevate him or her, then shall we start thinking of a reborn Nigeria

It might sound a litle bit far fetched but ,
recent developments got me wondering if we Nigerians in any little way are really thinking.
Things aint working out in our nation, it's blatantly surpriding that a general election has brought
the nation to a blunt tilt.
Where are our lawmakers?
who's thinking of the young men and women, their fate? their dreams and aspirations?
the lection cycle is full of promises, but are you voting where your ''pocket'' leads you?
or where your head, mind body and soul directs you?
our system is so corrupt, what has money-sharing got to do with electing candidates?
what corruption are you campaigning to fight when you are busy distributing bundles of cash ?
stolen cash, with the promise of stealing back x50 if you are elected?
Wake up Nigerians, amongst these wolves could still be a lamb,
find that lamb and elevate him or her, then shall we start thinking of a reborn Nigeria