The latest traffic survey in Trento, Italy, shows a very worrying figure: during peak hours the city can house up to 30,000 vehicles, for a total of more than 320,000 vehicles every day. The railroad is the transport mean that bring most users to the city – nearly 20,000 – but road transportation, with its 60,000 daily users, holds up very well. The share of people who travel by bike does not exceed 9 % (peak hour value, intra-city travel only), thus confirming that car use is still significant [1].

Drawing on these observations, the City council approved in February 2023 the Urban Sustainable Mobility Plan (“USMP”), that is, a strategic plan designed to meet the mobility demand of people and goods in urban and peri-urban areas while improving the quality of life and people. The Plan was co-written with “Biciplan”, a program that defines objectives, strategies and actions to promote and intensify the use of cycling as a means of daily transportation and for tourist and recreational activities. All in all, the USMP reframes the local mobility and represents a strategic planning and programming tool for local mobility and its relationship with the city of Trento.

The Plan envisions two scenarios [2]: the first is the short-term scenario (2026-2027) that coincides with the completion of Trento’s railway bypass. The USMP is expected to enhance the interchange of parking spaces in strategic areas thus supporting the “mobility hubs”: the soft mobility network will interconnect with the public transport system. Additionally, bike lanes and pedestrian routes for elementary school children will be built, and the two crossings of the Trento-Malè railway line will be removed. Along with this, new charging stations for electric vehicles and subsidized areas for electric scooters will be installed. Finally, roadside parking spaces will be relocated to less valuable areas in order to gain spaces for soft mobility.

The medium-term scenario (2031-2032) focuses particularly on the historical Verona-Brenner railway, which will be buried. Furthermore, bike-bus lines will be activated, real-time mobility information panels for private and public transport users will be installed, and smart mobility actions will be implemented.

The Plan objectives show how Trento aims to become a truly sustainable city. It is enough to think of the importance given to networks and connections, which will grow significantly thanks to the railway bypass construction, the underground Brenner railway and the lowering of the Trento-Malè railway. Hopefully, Trento will become a sustainability model for all other urban centers of the Province.

Related articles:

References:

[1] Comune di Trento, 2021. Redazione del Biciplan, del Masterplan della Mobilità e del Piano urbano della mobilità sostenibile. Rapporto di Sintesi, Fase 1: 110 pp.

[2] Comune di Trento, 2021. Redazione del Biciplan, del Masterplan della Mobilità e del Piano urbano della mobilità sostenibile. Rapporto di Sintesi, Fase 2: 294 pp.

Cover- and preview image: Trento’s train station. Free-source photo by Jakub Hałun – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16085845