Closure at the Sella Pass

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Motorcycle noise

Debate about the volume of motorcycles

Closure at the Sella Pass
Andy Schulz

counselor

traffic & business

Closure at the Sella Pass

Closure at the Sella Pass?
Traffic regulation in 2019 still unclear

In 2017 the Sella Pass was temporarily closed to conventional vehicles with combustion engines. In 2018, registration was compulsory, and the state government has not yet committed to traffic regulations for 2019.

Matteo Pesamosca, Uli Baumann

January 15, 2019

After motorized traffic on the Sella Pass was closed on Wednesdays in the summer of 2017, the Province of South Tyrol wanted to curb traffic on the Sella Pass with a new experiment in 2018. This experiment should help to find a definitive solution for sustainable mobility on the Sella Pass for 2019, says Environment State Councilor Richard Theiner. “The measure was targeted in summer 2018 “raising awareness, reducing noise and reducing traffic by 20 percent during the day, based on the average values”, stressed Theiner. In the morning, only about 200 vehicles per hour were allowed on the pass, in the afternoon it was about 100 to 150.

It is not yet known whether the experiment went well – and if so, for whom. The state government has not yet determined which traffic regulations will apply to the Sella Pass in summer 2019.

Approval for the Sella Pass is free

The traffic restriction on the Sella Pass was in effect from July 23 to August 31, 2018, from Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Only vehicles whose drivers had obtained a free permit beforehand were allowed to pass the Sella Pass. The permit was valid for one hour and could be accessed via:

  • the Openmove app or on the web at Openmove as
  • at the information points on site
  • at the ex-Hotel Miramonti on Plan de Gralba and at
  • Ruacia in St. Cristina on the South Tyrolean side and at
  • Lupo Binaco and Mazzin on the Trentino side.

Excluded from the permit requirement were vehicles with electric drive, public transport, holiday guests of the restaurants on the Sella Pass, emergency vehicles and agricultural vehicles.

2017 still with burners ban

On Wednesday, July 5, 2017, the Sella Pass was closed for the first time to all vehicles with internal combustion engines. The Sella Pass connects Val Gardena near Selva in South Tyrol with the Fassa Valley near Canazei in Trentino. The green light was only given for pedestrians, bicycles, electric motorcycles and e-cars, public transport and – of course – horses. At the time, the temporary ban was designed as an experiment that was to be extended to the Pordoi, Gardena and Campolongo passes in 2018.

Reinhold Messner on the 2017 blockage

Reinhold Messner also took part in the PR event on the closure in 2017. The extreme mountaineer is one of the main supporters of the initiative for the closures for motorists and motorcyclists in the Dolomites. “I imagine that in the not too distant time traffic in the Dolomites will be closed from morning to afternoon. So that the mountains can be enjoyed as they were 200 years ago: The mountain is a place of slowness and silence, not speed”.

The hosts and tour operators, on the other hand, obtained a legal dispute against the initiative of the environmentalists: “The blocking of the passports means our death”, says Osvaldo Finazzer, manager of a hotel on the Pordoi Pass.

“I only had six people in my restaurant [on Wednesday 5th July 2017; Note d. Red.], Someone ordered a coffee, someone else a beer. A total failure, a lost day for my business”, tells Stefano about the Hotel Mariaflora in Canazei.

And the motorcyclists? “Many concerned people from Germany called”, reports the innkeeper. “For us this is a huge damage to our image”.

Energica e-charging station


Closure at the Sella Pass


Energica

The Energica company has set up an e-filling station very close to the temporarily closed route, in Selva di Val Gardena. For Energica motorcycles, charging at the Fast Charge tank is even free of charge.

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