City at 30 kilometers per hour: not only Milan, Cesena has been driving slowly for 25 years
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TO Olbia And Cesena they’ve been going slow for over 20 years. Cities where less than 100,000 inhabitants live, different in everything, by urban typology, climate, economy and also in the political color of the juntas that govern them. And yet, both were the first in Italy to introduce the “30 zones”, i.e. to impose sustainable mobility on their motorists: of traveling on city streets under 30 kilometers per hour. As it happens now to Paris, Amsterdam And Milan and in 50 more or less large administrations in Italy. A decision though that ad Olbia And Cesena it was even taken at the end of the 90s and that no mayor since then has dreamed of removing. Now on all the roads of the Sardinian municipality you drive slowly, while the “30 zones” of Cesena are 50%.
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And after Cesena, also the municipal council of Reggio Emilia And Parma they decided to go slower. Reason? In 25 years, while the number of victims on the roads has decreased, the use of alternative mobility in urban areas has increased, especially the bicycle. “He was then in charge of the mobility of the Municipality, Gaston Baronioto take this decision when still in those years, few spoke of sustainable mobility – says the engineer John Finicurrent manager of the Mobility and Environment of Cesena – his goal was above all to make the safer streets, because in these parts there were many accidents. Too many. Most of the road fatalities occurred in the city. How was the decision to drive at 30 km/h received? Citizens weren’t entirely convinced, but today the mentality has changed and the data on accidents speak for themselves”.
More livable streets
In the 1990s, the province of Emilia held a tragic record of road fatalities: the average number of deaths on asphalt was 70 a year and the most dramatic period was 1997 with 79 deaths. Precisely the year in which the council of Cesena imposed the time limit on the streets of the center on citizens. Since then and for 25 years, road deaths have decreased. “By monitoring year by year, we have seen that it is not so much the number of accidents that is decreasing, which in any case fell by 20% from 1998 to 2020 – underlines engineer Guêze – but the results are less dramatic. Just take a look at the data that they concern only the municipality of Cesena where people travel at 30 kilometers per hour: the injuries due to road accidents, which in 1998 were 700, have halved: in 2019 they were 383.
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So also the victims: they were 15 in 1998; 3 in 2017; 4 in 2018. In 2021 there was only one fatality in the municipalitya pedestrian run over”. In Italy the car is used for city journeys which in 40% of cases are less than three kilometres. “The environmental aspect of our choice was considered later – explains Giovanni Fini – in an urban area like ours in full Po Valley in fact, it is difficult to understand how much the imposition of the speed limit may have had on the smog level. Here, the air pollution is highly variable and the smog due to traffic intertwines with other emissions of substances that involve not only industrial activities, but also agricultural and livestock activities, for example emissions due to the use of ‘ammonia”.
The benefits
There is no doubt, however, that having moderated the speed has had a beneficial environmental effect: the roads are considered by citizens more livable and therefore for short journeys, many of them increasingly leave the car at home. A good result considering that at national level in Italy the car is used for city journeys which in 40 percent of cases are less than three kilometres.
“In the last 25 years, the 30 km/h limit has made the streets safer – says Fini – and has convinced more citizens to move around the city by bike or on foot. They take the bike more willingly without the cars whizzing by”. The indication to limit the speed comes from theEurope which has asked to introduce the limit of 30 kilometers per hour in residential areas in all European cities and in those with a high number of cyclists and pedestrians.
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The request is in a resolution approved on 6 October 2021 by the European Parliament. The goal is precisely to halve the number of deaths on European roads by 2030 and to eliminate accidents with victims by 2050. Even the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella he addressed, in his end-of-year speech, the theme of deaths on the roads. In the first six months of 2022 alone, 1,450 people died in accidents in Italy, up on the previous year. At European level, 37 per cent of deaths are recorded in urban areas and 30 per cent see speeding as a key factor. Small towns are leading by example.
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