An urban plan with a regional impact

The mobility tasks are tackled by the PUM not only within the urban boundary, but in more vast territory, including also the suburban area services. In fact, Milan is the main centre of an area which extends outer than Milan and its hinterland (the so-called “Great Milan”); this area includes directly approximately seven and a half million inhabitants.

The Milan mobility tasks must be conceived to this scale, in a dialectic relationship with the other programming levels of Region and Province and involves subjects and institutions at national level, due to the relevance of such tasks, as the railways or the motorways.

The upgrade of the Milan urban mobility is indispensable to make more efficient the national and international relationships of this area, but at the same time the upgrade of the relationships among the main sites of this “polycentric city” is an essential condition for an increase in mobility and urban quality of the central area.
The social and economical benefits due to the decrease of the running times over the long distances would be idled by the absence of similar increases in quality and movements times within the city and the Region.
The Milan road ring and the railway network are both overcrowded and congested and in such a condition they deeply penalise the whole area.
The removal of this critical element will certainly increase the quality of the Milan transport system, giving the same time more efficiency to the regional system, with positive implications within the national transport system framework.
The fundamental strategies are oriented to a redesign of the urban area, either for the city and for the polycentric set of settlements – where Milan represents the main site for services and functions of higher level, which should be equally accessible to all the Region’s citizens – and to the European role of Milan, which puts the city in contact with the rest of the world for cultural, economical and political relationships.
The PUM starts an integrated planning process within the territory asset and the transport system and is a system project finalised to the amelioration of the urban quality.

Strategies for an efficient and sustainable mobility

Reduction of the urban congestion
The strategic orientation plans of the PUM 2001-2010 are intended to contrast congestion and pollution, increasing the possibility of movements either for people and for goods, with an intervention policy of realisation of infrastructures and services available for the whole population.
The PUM gives great importance to the choosing freedom of each citizen, permitting a more rational use of the different modes of road and railway transport, individual and collective.

Increase in transport safety
A primary objective of the Plan is the increase in road (and other modes) safety, according to the safety road programme of the European Commission, subscribed by Italy. The increase is due to a reorganisation of the urban road circulation, with the creation of pedestrian and bicycle areas and the separation of the different motorised traffic flows and with the users shift towards safer transport systems, i.e. from the individual to the collective transport system.

Quality increase of the local transport services
The increase in use of the public transport system should not depend upon the disincentive of the other modes of transport, but on the increase in quality and service offer. Basic elements for the public transport increase are the travel and wait times reduction, the integration among the different modes of transport (considering the whole transport system as a multimodal network), the strategic positioning of interchange stations in the network, the extension of the integrated fare system (including the integration between public transport fares and the individual mode costs), the increase in comfort of the user at the stops/stations and on board (vehicles).
The whole strategy of the public transport system is based on the main railway, underground and tramway networks. This main system is integrated with the urban network and with the adduction network from the outer towns nearby Milan.
The sustainable development of Milan can be performed with a direct strategy of strengthening of the railway network, which has historically consolidated the urban centres, realising a “metropolitan” service, cadenced, frequent, diffused and affordable, extended to the whole day.
Even if the matter is not strictly competence of the Milan Municipality, the programming activity is performed with Province, Region, Transport Ministry, Environment Ministry, Italian railway (Trenitalia) and Ferrovie Nord Milano. The resolution of the critical aspects of the railway Milan node is a problem which has not only local, but also regional and national interest, in order to guarantee the upgrade of the European railway accessibility, the strengthening of the connexions to the airport system and of the regional railway and metropolitan service.

Technological innovation
The management of the public and private mobility must provide interventions which rationalise the movements distribution, obviating to the low knowledge of the real conditions of circulation and parking lots. The increase of the capacity of the road and transport networks, the control of the demand development, the improvement in circulation conditions, the realisation of integrated and optimised management systems, the real time traffic information, the activation of assisted navigation and fleet management make part of this objective.

Reduction of the impact on the environment
The reduction of the emissions of polluting and climate altering gases requires the diversification of the energetic resources, such as the promotion of hybrid or electric vehicles, fuel cells vehicles or alternative fuels (Biodiesel, GPL, Methane); the reduction in acoustic pollution requires, on the other hand, interventions of reduction of the sources, the diffusion of electric vehicles and the use of draining and noise-reducing asphalts.

Rationalisation of the goods transport
The PUM delineates a strategy based on transits and head stations within the heart of the traffic generation areas, without necessarily passing through Milan, to be realised by interventions aimed essentially at the rationalisation of the logistic chains and the goods distributive processes.

The forecast investments
The interventions proposed by the PUM involves, for the Municipality of Milan, an expense, excluding the contributes already obtained or deliberated according to law 211/92, of approximately 3,61 billion € in the period 2001-2010; including the contributions deriving from the law 340/2000, the Municipality engagement would be reduced to approximately 2,78-2,84 billion €, i.e. to values comparable to what Milan has already invested in the past three years (1 billion €).

Modernisation and new projects

From the analytical list of the infrastructural interventions which form part of the “objectives system”, a detailed classification and a phasing time can be deduced.

Railway

• Completion of the railway tunnel connection “Garibaldi-Vittoria”;
• modernisation and increase of the capacity of the Milan railway node, for the improvement of the service quality: more punctuality and reliability of the railway service;
• more comfortable and modern trains, safer stations and better integration with car, bus, taxi, bicycles;
• better and more articulated links with the airports of Malpensa, Linate and Orio al Serio;
• design, with start in the second part of the decade, of the Second tunnel railway link “Certosa-Romolo”, in the west side of the city.

 Local public transport

• Extension of the underground network with the constructionof two new lines: M4 "Lorenteggio-Linate", M5 "Garibaldi-Osp. Maggiore" and the extensions of the exisitng ones towards the surrounding municipalities (M1 towards the new Exhibit pavillions and Monza, M2 towards Assago-Milanofiori, M3 Maciachini-Comasina;
• extension of the protection of the surface lines;
• extension of the tramways network with the realisation of three new lines: West Tramway Axum-Settimo Milanese, North Tramway Castello-Maciachini-Parco Nord, Tramway Milano-Cinisello, plus the South Tramway Duomo-Rozzano, under construction;
• improvement of the service quality of the whole public local transport system: restructuring and modernisation, introduction of innovative equipment for the fare system;
• monitoring of the service quality in the client/user vision and introduction for the Companies of the Quality Plan;
• extension of the transport services to the areas and the day periods with low demand;
• vehicles renewal, with purchase of new buses and modernisation of the existing vehicles;
• experimentation of new buses with hydrogen fuel cell, with zero emission level.

Road network

• Completion of the “integrated management system of the mobility” for all the traffic lights equipment for the circulation regulation, control and monitoring;
• introduction of “Environmental Areas” and Limited Traffic Areas in all the city sectors included among the main routes of the primary level road network;
• extension of the pedestrian areas, in parallel with the parking regulation and the construction of new parking lots;
• extension of the parking regulation to the Bastioni ring and in the areas with more dense presence of urban functions;
• redesign of the cyclist network, integrated with the “Environmental Areas” and pedestrian areas;
• realisation of informative systems for the routing and parking information in the parking lots in the historical centre and extension to the Bastioni area;
• realisation of parking .lots for residents and operators with direct intervention of the Municipality and use of the project financing;
• elimination of the discontinuities on the primary road network, since they cause traffic congestion and penalisation of the public transport network;
• redesign of the existing critical connexion points between the road ring and the radial roads.

Environment quality

• Reduction of the emissions of polluting and climate altering gases by means of diversification of the energetic sources, promotion of the circulation of electric, hybrid  or fuel cell moved by alternative fuels (Biodiesel, GPL, Methane);
• reduction of acoustic pollution on the sources, diffusing electric vehicles and using draining and noise-reducing asphalt;
• sensitisation and incentives for the use of private vehicles with alternatively powered engines;
• experimentation on the public fleet cars and buses and on the vehicles for freight urban distribution of the most advanced technologies: hydrogen engines, fuel cells, electric magnesium batteries, innovative equipment for electricity storage;
• promotion of the technological change of the entire energetic cycle of the vehicle.

Freight transport

• Reorganisation of the freight logistics with new and dedicated infrastructures within a new network (Segrate intermodal centre, new logistic area in the South Milan between the lines of Genova and Bologna and the railway itinerary “medio padano”, railway station of Milano-Certosa);
• regulation of the freight urban distribution;
• realisation of the already programmed intermodal centres, next to Milan basin.

Safety

• Decrease of accident rate on the roads by means of protection of the weak users reducing the vehicles speed, marking traffic, crossings illumination and protection;
• upgrade of the intersections in order to improve the visibility field;
• installation of telematics systems for the prevention, the control and the enforcement of users hazardous behaviours;
• monitoring of road interventions with data analysis and individuation of the causes with Road Safety Audmits procedures;
• improvement of the safety in mass public transport with upgrade of the ventilation systems, accident detection and fire smoke fighting;
• reorganisation of the underground lines due to the aves raising up;
• improvement  of the passengeres security with extension of the video cameras systems;
• introduction of the dock doors on the new underground lines in the open sky sections;
• limited circulation or behaviour to the heavy vehicles transporting dangerous goods.