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Approval
With
the Town Council deliberation n. 92 dated 05.22,2002, the City of Venice has
approved the General Urban Traffic Plan (G.U.T.P.) for mainland Venice
(districts of Mestre and Marghera),
drafted according to the new Code of Traffic Circulation (CTC, legislative
decree n. 285/1992) and following Directives for drafting, adoption and implementation of the Urban Traffic Plans
dated 06.24.1995.
The
process of approval began with the Municipal Council deliberation n. 1975 dated
12.16.1999 with the subject “Adoption of the General Urban Traffic Plan of Mestre e Marghera”. The P.G.T.U.
was later issued according to legislation, leading to the presentation of
55 remarks presented by single or groups of
citizens, associations and organized subjects. From the evaluation of such
observations, and on account of those made by the Quarters, the Municipality of Marghera and by
the 4th Town Council Commission, the final outline of
the recommended decisions for the short-term urban traffic management has been
derived.
What is G.U.T.P.?
The
G.U.T.P. represents the first level of urban management planning. It aims at
(see the new CTC, art. 36, comma 4): “improving traffic circulation and road
safety, lowering acoustic and atmospheric pollution, energy saving”. These
objectives must be “in accordance with urban land use and transport plans and
take into account environmental priorities and their times of implementation”.
The
national Directives later clarified the meaning of G.U.T.P.: it is a group of
coordinated actions aiming at optimising the management of urban traffic
without carrying out the development of large infrastructure.
This
makes G.U.T.P. a tool that can be implemented in a very short time period
(nearly 2 years), in
guiding the policies on this important urban issue.
Subject
In
general, G.U.T.P. implementation is characterized by low cost interventions. It
is focussed on the mitigation of critical aspects of road traffic circulation and on the
optimisation of existing infrastructure.
To
reach this objective, G.U.T.P. can include the revision of intersection design,
the renewal of road regulations, the identification of pedestrian areas, low
traffic zones, cycling routes and preferential lanes for public transport, the
optimisation of car parks and the introduction of fares.
The
national Directives emphasize how critical aspects can be removed only through
adequate infrastructure and public service empowering, both of which should be
envisaged in the Transport and Mobility Plan (T.M.P.). This latter Plan has a
longer time of implementation (10 years) than the G.U.T.P. and it deals with
infrastructure and services that can require costly investments.
The
G.U.T.P. only addresses the issues regarding Venice’s mainland road
traffic, leaving the solution of mobility problems between the historical
centre and the mainland, the issues on future motorways and critical aspects of
goods transport to
higher level plans.
Contents
The
contents of G.U.T.P. for the City of Venice are:
-
analysis of urban transport problems;
-
identification of the plan’s objectives;
-
strategies of action;
-
description of interventions;
-
priorities and
consequent actions.
Analysis of urban transport problems
It
covers the different components and modalities of transport and includes the
examination of road traffic impacts on the environment.
The
most meaningful elements are:
- commuting journeys for
residents are characterized by a prevalence of journeys in the historical
centre and in the mainland (like having two segregated “cities”). The two
agglomerations are independent, not only for working journeys but also for
occasional journeys;
- people
living in mainland Venice (Mestre and Marghera) make great use of
the bicycle, walking and cars (for work-related uses), while there is a
limited use of public transport (this is not true for the historical centre);
- each day 108,000 vehicles
enter the urban area of mainland Venice through radial
arterial roads. 42% of them only cross the city without stopping. 90% enters
the urban area via the motorways, while 4 urban and extra-urban big roads (“Miranese”, “Castellana”, “Terraglio” and “Riviera del Brenta”)
collect 52% of traffic flow entering the city;
- the
mean speed of public buses decreases from the outskirts to the city centre; one
of the most important arterial roads (“Miranese”)
presents the lowest speed in the city centre;
- the number of accidents
is high and it has been increasing in recent years. The highest number of
accidents occurs on the Circular Road of Mestre (10%
of the total), followed by the main arterial roads that give access to the city
centre: “Miranese”, “F.lli Bandiera”, “Martiri della Libertą”, “Orlanda”, “Castellana”, “Terraglio”, “S. Doną”, “Trieste”
and the “S.S. 11”;
- air quality analysis
points out high levels of air pollution, caused by pollutant emissions from
road traffic. This is true for noise pollution too.
The definition of the
Plan objectives
As a rule, the General Urban Traffic Plan of Mestre and Marghera takes on board
the objectives decided by the legislation in force regarding the G.U.T.P.:
- the improvement of road safety (road accidents
reduction);
- the improvement of road
circulation (running and parking conditions);
- the reduction of noise
and atmospheric pollution;
- environmental
protection issues;
- energy saving;
- the synergy
with land use planning instruments and transportation Plans in force.
The Plan takes on board the general objectives and relates them to the specific
mobility conditions today present in the
mainland, which is characterized by very
different levels of critical situations.
All the actions planned in the G.U.T.P. will induce a share of
present drivers to use public transportation, with particular reference to
commuters. control of parking in relation to the
duration of the stop can influence this kind of
transport user. Commuters journeys are those most easily transferred to
public transport, also through modal exchange operations; because of their regularity, they can take advantage of
preferential rates for public transport and for the incidence of the journey’s
length versus the staying time at the
destination.
The chosen strategies
To reach the objectives of the Plan some
precise action strategies have been identified, and characterized in relation
to the particularity of the territory and the characteristic of the road
network and existing transportation systems. The strategies adopted in the Plan
follow
A. Strategies on road safety
The action strategy envisages immediate
intervention to find a solution to the most serious situations, with the new
planning of crossroads and protection measures for pedestrians and bicycle
mobility. Other medium-term actions foresee the development of technological
systems of supervision
and control, to bring about traffic calming and the identification of serious
violations. Further long-term actions are the
monitoring of accidents rates and those relative to road education in order to
encourage correct behaviours.
A.1 moderation action (new physical design);
A.2 development of supervision and regulation
systems;
A.3 traffic control reinforcement;
A.4 accident monitoring and junction analysis;
A.5 education;
A.6 users
information.
B. Strategies for the improvement of circulation conditions
The improvement of circulation conditions can
be pursued by means of direct actions on the road network and traffic control,
so as to facilitate an orderly traffic flow and homogeneous speed (even if the
envisaged Plan only
permits light actions of rearrangement of the present
infrastructure).
Another method is the decrease of traffic
volume, that lead to a different supply/demand relationship and a consequent
decrease of congestion levels; this method can be pursued by means of the same
strategies of modal rebalancing envisaged in subsection C.
B.1 calming of traffic flow;
B.2 elimination of non-regulated parking;
B.3
improvement/maintenance of the multi-modal accessibility levels.
C. Strategies for the control of environmental impacts
Apart from safety, the other major problem
caused by traffic is air pollution, even though there are also other
contributory causes like, in primis, the
economic and industrial activities.
In general the strategy envisages two
intervention areas: the control and reduction of unitary pollution levels (i.e.
the single vehicle*km emissions) and the monitoring and reduction of the
overall generating amount (i.e. the total of vehicles*km in the considered
area).
C.1 control/regulation of vehicular flows;
C.2 control/improvement of car parks;
C.3 improvement of the service level of public
transportation and modal re-balance;
C.4 protection/priority to bicycle mobility;
C.5 protection/priority to
pedestrian mobility.
D. Strategies for environmental protection
The strategies regarding environmental
protection duplicate the intervention techniques envisaged for the control of environmental impacts
and are therefore based on controlling the circulation
conditions and the reduction of vehicular traffic obtained through re-balancing
actions.
These intervention techniques have to be focused on the
most environmentally vulnerable areas and sites to make sure that traffic
volume and its composition and flow does not cause damages to human activities
carried out in public areas and in buildings adjacent to the examined roads.
D.1 control/moderation of circulation in the
city centre and in the most valuable historical/natural areas;
D.2 control of heavy duty vehicles
circulation;
D.3 control/regulation of parking;
D.4 control/moderation
of circulation in residential areas.
E. Strategies on energy saving
As for the control of environmental impacts, also the
strategies for energy consumption consist in the
control and reduction of unitary consumption and in the monitoring and
reduction of overall vehicles*km.
The planned actions principally regard
circulation control and modal rebalance in favour of public transportation and non
motor-driven modality; the strategies therefore reproduce, with small
settlements, those pointed out at subsection C on the control of environmental
impacts.
E.1=C.1 control/regulation of vehicular flows;
E.2=C.2 control/improvement of car park;
E.3=C.3 improvement of public transportation
service levels and modal rebalance;
E.4=C.4 protection/priority to bicycle
mobility;
E.5=C.5 protection/priority to pedestrian
mobility.
F. Strategies to coordinate actions with the
implementation of large projects
The General Urban Traffic Plan envisages the
implementation of actions on networks and services, so that the circulation
conditions can improve and the accessibility levels to the given
infrastructures can grow wider (i.e. without planning complex actions of
completion and improvement of the network). The Plan has to confine itself to
coordinate its short-term policies, with the implementation of large
development projects, and supply information on the modality of communication
with other Authorities and planning teams in order to harmonize the large
projects with the Plan’s policies.
F.1 proposal of the urban mobility priority;
F.2 project suggestions to widen the benefits;
F.3 management of the actual situation
G. Action description
The Plan foresees a wide series of actions
regarding both light infra-structural elements (i.e. re-design of crossroads or
roads’ sections) or regulation elements (coordinated traffic lights systems).
Some actions regard the central and most
urbanized area of Mestre; others, instead, the
suburban areas, the hamlets and the road system outside the city.
Among the major actions are:
- planning and implementation of
actions to make some dangerous crossroads and road sections safer. There are
both speed control elements and physical elements of flow “moderation”. An
example is the re-design of the sidewalks’ profile near a crossroad and the
chromatic painting of the pavement;
- re-organization of the
central roads system including the widening of the pedestrian area (including the streets “Poerio” and “Rosa” on one side, and “S. Pio
X”, “San Rocco” and a section of “Einaudi” on the
other), the revision of the circulation scheme (with a penalty for crossing flows) and the
introduction of new sectors of preferential lanes for public transportation;
- operation of upstream selection
of commuters journeys by means of a system of semi-central and suburban
exchange parking with management that incentives to long-term stops is
foreseen. In the central area the regulation of stops is more selective, with
the widening of parking
on payment, differentiated for residents, operators and occasional users;
- development of the
cycle network and particularly the resolution of the most dangerous
junctions for cycle transit;
- implementation of a
combined series of actions for the protection of residential areas, so as to improve the quality of life,
decrease the negative impacts of the motor-driven traffic and the incorrect cross- flows.
- implementation of traffic
supervision and regulation programme, based on automatic surveying technologies
of flows and transits, on the control and coordination of traffic lights and on
the information instruments to the user (variable message signals). This system
will allow better regulation and calming of flowing traffic and also an
effective management of environmental and traffic emergencies.
Priorities and implementation modalities
The effective implementation of G.U.T.P. requires a
precise sequence of actions. Many specific actions regarding the road system
and circulation need a number of planned and favourable conditions, both in
order to start them and
for them to be effective once completed. That is in order to
clear up a priori all the involved components in the project
implementation and consequently start up strict action planning. In the spirit
of traffic plan legislation, the implementation of the G.U.T.P. cannot address
all the necessities of reorganization and improvement of city’s road spaces.
This is true in the first place for areas not directly interested by G.U.T.P.’s actions, but also for the centre of Mestre and Carpenedo-Bissuola
ambits, that require in any case the completion of the local schemes of circulation,
the controlled traffic zones (so called 30 km/h zones) and/or regulation stop
zones, further cycle junction roads and pedestrianised
areas with successive detailed planning actions.
Urban
Traffic Plan: full text document in Italian language
Urban
Traffic Plan: maps in Italian language |