The famous city of Milan in northern Italy is turning challenge to opportunity in response to the coronavirus, launching plans to transform the city towards cycling and pedestrian use.

Milan and the surrounding region of Lombardy has long struggled to deal with traffic congestion and associated air quality and was named as the nation’s sixth most polluted city just last year. Since coronavirus caused a nationwide lockdown, motor traffic congestion has dropped between 30-75% in the city.

Air quality has improved in response and authorities are hoping to avoid a return to heavy car use as residents begin to return to work. The Strade Aperte plan announced last month includes provisions for low-cost temporary cycle lanes, new and widened pavements, 30 km per hour speed limits, and pedestrian and cyclist priority streets. 

“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,” Marco Granelli, a deputy mayor of Milan, told The Guardian.

“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.”

As a relatively small but densely populated city where the average commute is less than 4km total, making the switch from motor vehicles to public and active modes of transport in Milan easier than it would be in more widely sprawling cities such as we have in Australia. However, city planners will undoubtedly be looking at Milan (and other areas of Europe acting in a similar manner) to get pointers on how we could potentially reset our own cities.

 

Positive Action

• If you are returning to work and other activities outside your home, consider your footprint and whether you could use an active mode of transport such as cycling or walking over driving.
• If these active options aren’t possible for you, consider public transport.

 

Subscribe to Positive Environment News
Positive Environment News has been compiled using publicly available information. Planet Ark does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the original information and encourages readers to check the references before using this information for their own purposes.