Improving transit in Rome

Why can't the Tiber serve the city's transit needs?

Recently I was interviewed in my studio for a CNN show called “Future Cities“;  the first episode just aired addressing the challenges of public transit in Rome. Much of the program, including the Mayor’s interview, repeats the old story about how Rome has a very limited underground metro system due to the presence of archaeology which makes construction slow and expensive. More interestingly, Engineer Antonio Tamburrino, one of the participants of the 1972 Club of Rome with whom I have been discussing urban sustainability of late, instead presents an innovative project to pedestrianize the historical center and surround it with a ring of surface light-rail, a smart alternative to heavy underground trains (which are last century’s technology).   Since the only clip they used from my own interview was a short, rather silly soundbite, I want to dedicate a blogpost in which to share my more complete views on this important issue.

It has become a cliché to say that Rome is structurally not well-adaptable to transit because of its archaeological layers or to bicycling because of its hills. But it is not cultural heritage or topography that stand in the way of a more livable city. In truth, the single greatest menace to the city of Rome and the one for which the solutions are the most obvious and yet the most elusive, is automotive traffic.  Cars clog the streets and pollute the air, not to mention inflicting a startling human cost,: an average of two pedestrians die in Italy each day, mortalities from accidents are about one an hour, not even counting the health costs and economic damages. We hear a lot about the Traffic Emergency, but when we look at the details the solutions are often the creation of parking structures, the widening of streets, drafting of new laws, etc.

I’m convinced that the simplest solution lies in simply enforcing the existing laws regarding motor vehicles. Despite a relatively high 50km/h speed limit throughout the city (London has lowered its to 30), cars can be clocked at double this on Via Fori Imperiali near the Colosseum where a young cyclist was killed two years ago. Despite parking restrictions typical of most European cities, autos can be seen everywhere in violation and rarely fined.

This has been long accepted as sign of Italy’s famous flexibility with regard to the law, turning a blind eye to minor violations, but urban residents are starting to get fed up.  I work with a number of pedestrian advocacy groups and public space planners and, thanks especially to the web and to blogs like my own, initiatives to fight the automotive addiction are growing. Fed up with the lack of enforcement of parking laws we have started distributing our own symbolic citizen’s fines, attempting to sensitive drivers to the fact that their personal convenience comes at the price of the rights and safety of hundreds of  pedestrians and cyclists, children and elderly, people who are consuming no fossil fuels and producing no emissions.

Our goal is to shift the balance back to a mix of public transit and walking/cycling. Rome’s public transit network, in particular its buses and light rail, is potentially one of Europe’s best, were in not for the congestion of private vehicles and inconsistent management. I’m convinced that given a choice of a clean, efficient transit system and pleasant safe streets for walking and cycling, counterbalanced by costly and rigorously enforced parking restrictions, most Romans will eventually overcome their automotive addiction.