Multifunzionalità e conflittualità nelle Zone 30

Le Zone 30 costituiscono una misura di riorganizzazione e ridisegno dello spazio stradale, volta a migliorare la compatibilità delle diverse funzioni che tale spazio deve assolvere, in termini di mobilità, vita relazionale, qualità ambientale ed estetica del paesaggio urbano. L'imposizione del limite di velocità dei 30 km/h può però innescare la vivace opposizione dei residenti e degli utenti dell'area, perché sembra penalizzare quella funzione di mobilità che attualmente, alla luce del forte squilibrio modale verso il traffico motorizzato privato, risulta predominante - con forme di maggiore o minore incompatibilità - rispetto alle altre. L'articolo prende in esame queste manifestazioni di conflittualità che possono emergere a fronte di misure di moderazione della velocità, approfondendo in particolare lo studio di caso relativo alla Zona 30 di Mirafiori Nord a Torino. Da tale caso, e dall'analisi delle principali linee guida europee sulla moderazione del traffico, vengono messe in evidenza le condizioni per prevenire o gestire le eventuali opposizioni locali. In particolare, un ruolo importante deve essere svolto dal processo di partecipazione dei cittadini: da un lato, esso deve permettere loro di comprendere la filosofia di fondo delle Zone 30, con gli effettivi costi e benefici che ne possono derivare; dall'altro lato, deve coinvolgerli direttamente nelle scelte volte a fare della messa in sicurezza anche un'occasione di riqualificazione e rigenerazione del quartier

15-, 10- or 5-minute city? A focus on accessibility to services in Turin, Italy

The concept of the 15-minute city is receiving increasing attention, both in planning practices and in the academic literature, especially now that the pandemic has made evident the need for a minimum set of proximity-based services accessible by active travel. Most issues of this concept can be traced back to more or less past planning ideas such as the garden city, the neighbourhood unit, the superblock etc.; however, further studies are needed, as many theoretical and methodological questions for its implementation remain unresolved. The paper presents a methodology to operationalise the concept of the 15-minute city, in order to show which parts of the city and what percentage of its population can access a location of a given service on foot within three time thresholds (5, 10 and 15 minutes). The methodology is tested on the Italian city of Turin. The results show that, at least in dense European cities such as the case study, the 15-minute threshold cannot always be assumed as the necessarily most appropriate target, since many services can already be reached by foot within this time, or even less, by the majority of the population. Moreover, the levels of accessibility to services are significantly determined by the number and spatial distribution of the locations of these services. Finally, a recovery of the operational research on accessibility measures and indicators that was developed in the field of regional sciences in the second half of the last century and in the last twenty years is recommended to complexify the operationalisation of the 15-minute city concept

Metropolitan railway systems and Transit oriented development in Italian provincial coordination territorial plans

In the last twenty years, Transit oriented development (TOD) has received increasing attention all over the world. It is recognized as a planning approach that allows to pursue, on the one hand, more sustainable mobility patterns that are less dependent on car and more based on rail usage; on the other hand, it is in line with strategies that promote polycentric development in contrast to urban sprawl. In this sense, it seems quite suitable to be applied to Italian metropolitan areas, where recently many suburban railways have been reorganized as integrated Metropolitan railway systems (MRSs), and polycentric development is often set as a strategic issue in regional planning. The paper examines the provincial coordination territorial plans (PTCPs) of nine Italian Provinces in order to verify if and how they adopt a TOD approach to support their MRSs. The selected PTCPs are analyzed in terms of promoted settlement model, role assigned to the MRS, rules and recommendations concerning new residential developments and the localization of manufacturing activities and metropolitan tertiary functions. The results show that in most PTCPs TOD approach is referred in generic terms, and is not systematically applied or operationally defined; furthermore, in locating metropolitan tertiary functions, PTCPs often prefer accessibility by road rather than by rail. The only – but relevant – exception is represented by the PTCP of Bologna, where a TOD approach has been adopted to mutually support the sustainability of mobility patterns and a polycentric densification, with positive effects on both rail ridership and containment of urban sprawl

Livable neighborhoods for sustainable cities: Insights from Barcelona

The paper proposes a reflection on the superblock model - or supermanzana, in its well-known Spanish application - in the context of the debate on the 15-minute city and on the functional reorganization of mobility and public space to improve the quality of life, health and accessibility in urban areas. The impacts of car traffic on the livability of cities and neighborhoods, in terms of safety, air pollution, noise, but also in terms of consumption and quality of public space, are widely acknowledged. These issues are not new to the debate: since the first decades of the 20th century, with the advent and rapid diffusion of the automobile, concerns on the impacts of vehicular traffic and issues of urban livability and traffic separation have been raised by urban and transport planners. As a consequence, various models of neighborhood planning emerged, proposing solutions to limit these impacts. The supermanzana model takes up the principles of neighborhood planning by identifying a main road network and setting up a system of superblocks within the meshes of this network, in order to improve accessibility, equity, health and livability; it aims on the one hand to transform public spaces at the neighborhood level and on the other hand to reorganize the existing urban structure. The application of the supermanzana model in Barcelona offers an interesting contribution to the debate on the 15-minute city, showing how the principle of traffic separation can be applied to existing, dense urban contexts, reclaiming public space to more livable neighborhoods and sustainable cities. The analysis of the case study of Barcelona can contribute to research and policy, learning from this experience and especially from the critical issues that emerged

Analysis of Hydrogeological Risks Related to Climate Change: Testing the ClimeApp Assessment Tool on the Torino Nord Homogenous Zone

The current changes in temperatures and precipitations can lead to increased frequency and magnitude of natural hazards such as floods, resulting in forthcoming losses of life and damages to private and public properties. This paper presents an applied hydrogeological risk assessment methodology developed as part of an interdisciplinary European project between France and Italy (Interreg Alcotra ARTACLIM). A practical framework is proposed to assess the risk for urban settle-ments and infrastructural assets at a sub-regional level, within one of the 11 homoge-neous zones of the Turin Metropolitan City, the “Torino Nord” Homogeneous Area of Pinerolo (ZOP). Based on the most reliable guidelines of institutions and organi-zations such as IPCC, United Nations, Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy EUROPE, the methodology here presented identifies risks related to climate change as a function of hazard (H), exposure (E) and vulnerability (V) factors, the latter one being in turn a function of sensitivity (S) and adaptive capacity (AC). Each factor is operationalized through specific indicators. The results of the analysis generate a geo-localized risk score that can be used to support urban planners and local policy-makers to prioritize the adaptation measures required for reducing hydrogeological damages related to climate change

Implementing the Supermanzana approach in Barcelona. Critical issues at local and urban level

To improve neighbourhood liveability and urban sustainability, Barcelona is seeking to re-organize its urban structure into superblocks, designed to discourage cut-through traffic and promote multiple uses of street space. Despite its potential, this approach is not without its limits, that should be properly taken into account. The implementation of the Supermanzana model in the Poblenou neighbourhood is explored in this paper to analyse its potentialities and constraints. Temporal synchronization between the urban level and the neighbourhood level turns out to be particularly important to reduce conflicts and criticalities