Milan is to introduce one of Europe’s most ambitious schemes reallocating street space from motor vehicles to cycling and walking in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The northern Italian city and surrounding Lombardy region are among Europe’s most polluted, and have also been especially hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under a nationwide lockdown, motor traffic congestion has dropped by 30 to 75 percent, and air pollution with it. City officials hope to fend off a resurgence in motor vehicle use as residents return to work looking to avoid busy public transport.
Photo: Reuters
The city has announced that 35km of streets would be transformed over the summer, with a rapid, experimental citywide expansion of cycling and walking space to protect residents as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
The Strade Aperte plan, announced on Tuesday, includes low-cost temporary cycle lanes, new and widened pavements, 30kph speed limits, and pedestrian and cyclist priority streets.
The locations include a low-traffic neighborhood on the site of the former Lazzaretto, a refuge for victims of plague epidemics in the 15th and 16th centuries.
“We worked for years to reduce car use. If everybody drives a car, there is no space for people, there is no space to move, there is no space for commercial activities outside the shops,” Milan Deputy Mayor Marco Granelli said. “Of course, we want to reopen the economy, but we think we should do it on a different basis from before.”
“We think we have to reimagine Milan in the new situation. We have to get ready; that’s why it’s so important to defend even a part of the economy, to support bars, artisans and restaurants. When it is over, the cities that still have this kind of economy will have an advantage, and Milan wants to be in that category,” he said.
Milan is a small, dense city, 15km from end to end with 1.4 million inhabitants, 55 percent of whom use public transport to get to work. The average commute is less than 4km, making a switch from motor vehicles to active modes of travel potentially possible for many residents.
Work could start on an 8km stretch of Corso Buenos Aires, one of the city’s most important shopping streets, by the beginning of next month — with a new cycle lane and expanded pavements.
The remainder of the work would be completed by the end of the summer, officials said.
Janette Sadik-Khan, a former New York City transportation commissioner, is working with cities, including Bogota and Milan, on their transport recovery programs.
She said that Milan, which is a month ahead of other world cities in the trajectory of the pandemic, could provide a road map for others.
“A lot of cities and even countries have been defined by how they’ve responded to historical forces, whether it’s political, social, or physical reconstruction,” she said.
“The Milan plan is so important, because it lays out a good playbook for how you can reset your cities now,” Sadik-Khan said.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a fresh look at your streets and make sure that they are set to achieve the outcomes that we want to achieve: not just moving cars as fast as possible from point A to point B, but making it possible for everyone to get around safely,” she said.
“I know we’ll be looking to Milan for guidance from New York City,” Sadik-Khan said.
“We should accept that for months or maybe a year, there will be a new normality, and we have to create good conditions to live this new normality for everyone,” Milan Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Green Areas and Agriculture Pierfrancesco Maran said.
“I think in the next month in Milan, in Italy, in Europe, we will decide part of our future for the next decade. Before, we were planning for 2030; now the new phase, we are calling it 2020. Instead of thinking about the future, we have to think about the present,” he said.
In the UK on Monday, Brighton started opening part of the seafront, Madeira Drive, only to pedestrians and cyclists from 8am to 8pm.
In Barnes, London, businesses and residents have coned off part of the road outside shopping parades to expand pedestrian space and help shoppers keep their distance from each other.
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