In English for Eltis !

Routes to school, sustainable mobility and urban regeneration

Preface:
It's been some years now that in Italy citizens are taking initiative aimed at sustainable mobility and urban regeneration.
Since 2014 Comitato Slow Town of Casalmaggiore (CR) organizes demonstrations and experiments designed to encourage pedestrian and bike mobility in the city and the regeneration of public spaces creating 30 km/h areas (called Zona30) and safe routes for pedestrians and bikers, particularly for children on the route from home to school or school to downtown.

Casalmaggiore (in the province of Cremona, in Lombardia) has 15,000 inhabitants and lies alongside the river Po. Like many small and large italian cities has a "desertified" downtown because over the last twenty years have been recklessly built shopping centers in the outskirts and new residential districts, resulting in large land occupation. In the center about 70 shops were closed and 1,500 apartments went uninhabitated, 30% of the total.
These things led to urban decay in downtown and danger on its streets, because they've no longer been occupied by persons, but by vehicles people use to move faster from home to work and home to shopping centers.
Facing these issues Comitato Slow Town began to experiment with new ways of using the inner city streets.
The most common way the citizens move is by car and the road system has been designed over the years keeping that in mind. The few facilities for cyclists in many cases don't meet the traffic code regulations and are dangerous. The streets in downtown aren't large enough to allow the existence of bicicle lanes without removing the parking spaces for automobiles and in several streets the parking spaces are made on a portion of the sidewalk, when there are sidewalks.
Piedibus, an initiative aimed to walk children to school and running for about ten years now, has three lines that connect the center to the primary school thanks to the volunteers and involves forty pupils (5% of the total).
This Piedibus, despite being very useful for the children and families involved, did not solve the many problems existing on the road to school.

Description of the project

Zona30
In 2014, thanks to a notice of Fondazione Cariplo aimed at "Comunità Resilienti" (so called communities that are resilient despice many aspects of locally identified environmental difficulties) and the involvement of an architect specializing in Zona30 (Matteo Dondè from Milan), it was possible to develop and test a 30 km/h speed-reducing project in a street of the center through the installation of urban and green furniture on the roadway which has created a slowdown chicane. This experimentation, which originally was intended to last two days, because of the great success and as a result of a petition that in a few days reached more than a thousand signatures, remained for the next three months. Comune di Casalmaggiore then commissioned to Architect Dondè a final project which in two years has unfortunately remained on paper due to lack of funds.

La città dei bambini (Children's town)
At the end of 2014 Comitato Slow Town presented also to the municipality a school mobility plan inspired by the experience "Meglio a piedi" in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. A very articulate plan that, among other suggestions, proposed to use the main bank of the river as the primary safe way to school and close some streets to traffic near the school complex during entry and exit hours. The plan was put to test by the Comitato Slow Town in May, 2015 with the participation of local schools and the assistance of the local police.
Given the success of the test and the requirements the plan required (a further project implementation and light infrastructure such as a dirt road), the Comitato Slow Town has organized in May 2016 a new exhibition entitled "La città dei bambini" (Children's town). With the involvement of private construction companies and "Botteghe di prossimità" (shops displaced along the track) what was missing was realized.

Tangenziale dei bambini (Children's ring road)
In the three-day event "La città dei bambini" it was inaugurated the "Tangenziale dei bambini", a pedestrian / cycle path which is spread over a couple of kilometers along the main bank of the river Po. The route is an extremely safe route because it is closed to vehicular traffic and therefore suitable as road to school.
It's an actual ring road with traffic signs, in every way suitable for children. It will be used by children to get to and from school, gym, library, and the most attractive places of downtown, surrounded by beautiful scenery and sheltered from traffic risk and smog.
"Tangenziale dei bambini" has all the features of a true ring road: it's peripheral, unites all the main sites of downtown and is equipped with exits (nine).
This ring road allows children to stay clear of the downtown street risks, expecially in the rush hours of the schools when a thousand people (parents and pupils) have a hard time weaving in and out of curves, dangerous crossings, double parked cars, lack of sidewalks and crosswalks.
The new route, siding river Po, not only avoids all these risks and is as long as the other ones (fifteen minutes inside nature) but is proposed as alternative transportation by all means. The Piedibus will profit so much from this additional track that from next year one of the lines could be the ring road.
For the project hasn't been necessary the construction of something anew but only to adapt an existing route in two simple steps. The realization of a dirt road to connect the main bank to the city and give continuity to the whole track. This dirt road was designed and built thanks to private companies in the area that cared for the safety of children. The project was submitted to the municipality that gave the authorization to perform the works on its areas.
The municipality didn't use its own resources to build the dirt road and, in addition, will benefit from the less stressed downtown streets. The entire community will benefit from the reduction of accidents, expecially the weaker users, and the redution of acoustic and air pollution.

Metrominuto Casalmaggiore
Linked to 'Tangenziale dei bambini' there is the MetroMinuto project. The ring road has nine exits located by the stairs and descents down the main bank. Every exit has a sign indicating name and number of the exit, images of relevant destinations along the route, metres and minutes needed to the destinations. Each exit is marked with a different color and has simple grafics, suitable for children.

MetroBottega Casalmaggiore

MetroBottega completes the mobility project of Comitato Slow Town, allowing everyone to enjoy downtown without using the car, starting from the main bank with 'Tangenziale dei bambini', Metrominuto and its nine exits/routes.
MetroBottega is a map showing the main downtown streets grouped in ten different coloured lines. This 'pedestrian open sky metro' will help citizens finding the products and services they need and 'Botteghe di prossimità' ...