Italian city Florence bans golf carts and bicycle rickshaws to tackle overtourism

Florence is struggling to manage tourists in crowded areas. Photo / Getty Images

Florence has become the first city in Europe to ban bicycle rickshaws to tackle overtourism.

Officials said transporting tourists in the three-wheeled “atypical vehicles”, or in golf carts, would no longer be permitted in the Tuscan capital’s Unesco-listed centre.

The historic city is struggling to manage hordes of tourists in crowded areas.

Andrea Giorgio, the city’s transport chief, said: “We have decided to intervene because the situation has become unsustainable, with hundreds of golf carts stopping in every street and in every piazza in the historic centre”.

Furious motorists called for a crackdown after 15 million tourists flocked to Florence last year, making it nearly impossible to drive in the streets and forcing many of the city’s 367,000 residents to leave.

Jacopo Vicini, the city councillor for tourism, said: “We urgently needed to limit golf carts, which have increased in parallel with tourism”.

“There are about 150 now, and they line up in Piazza Duomo where the drivers tout for business.”

A small fleet of 24 white electric carts, each with an eight-person capacity, will be given exemption to drive along a fixed route, Vicini added.

In London, there has been public support for controlling the use of pedicabs, as cycle rickshaws are sometimes known.

Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, said “rip-off rickshaw riders” gave London a bad name and called for garishly decorated and extortionately priced rickshaws to be banned.

Last month, in a consultation by Transport for London, more than 95% of the 7700 responders said pedicab drivers should be insured and have their music volume kept in check.

More than 75% said they felt unsafe when using a pedicab in the British capital.

The ban in Florence is the latest in a series of efforts to tackle overtourism.

It has also cracked down on short-term rental flats, which account for a third of all properties in the city centre and cause prices to surge.

The city sent police to remove 400 eyesore key safes fixed to railings and lamp posts, which allowed tourists to enter rented flats without meeting the owners.

In November, local officials also banned amplifiers and loudspeakers used by tour guides.

They claimed that swarms of visitors to the historic centre were “weakening its heritage value and seeing its overall liveability compromised”.