On the May 30th, during the Biennale Spazio Pubblico we participated in the “Network for Soft mobility and city accessible to all” working table. Comparisons, orientations and perspectives from the territory” promoted by INU-Urbit with FIABComuniCiclabili and Touring Club Italiano.
After a brief introduction by the Crofessor Iginio Rossi, Coordinator of the workshop, Ernesto Marchegiani, Polytechnic University of Marche, and Alessandro Valenza, Expert of SIE funds and Financial Instruments, senior partner of t33, discussed the theme of the use and potential of the European financial instruments for urban development through structural funds.
In the next two hours the participants were divided into 6 work tables, to address different topics, with a common methodology.
CRITICITY – SOLUTIONS TO OVERCOME THEM
OPPORTUNITIES – SOLUTIONS TO VALUE THEM
PERSPECTIVES AND INTEGRATIONS – SOLUTIONS TO IMPLEMENT THEM.
These were the macro areas on which to reflect and in which to insert the experiences of each of the associations, institutions, groups, present around each table.
At the end of the discussion we drafted the TABLE SUMMARY, which was read in a final plenary session.
With some slight differences, in fact the conclusions can be summarized as follows:
Technical training. It is necessary that there are trained persons in charge of checking Accessibility and evaluating the routes based on common parameters
Identify guidelines for accessibility and soft mobility, or parameters that allow identifying the paths suitable for everyone.
Reducing bureaucracy, increasing clarity on how and where to find finance,
Working on awareness and communication to spread awareness that accessibility concerns everyone, not just the disabled.
In fact the standard man does not exist and we could all sooner or later have need of paths usable also with reduced mobility, temporary or permanent or with sensory limitations, whether they are due to the advancement of the age or to a disability.
To implement this change, the participation of local communities, the institutions is necessary and an integration of resources and efforts is hoped for. In fact the benefit for greater usability has a strong impact on the enhancement of the territory, which becomes usable by a greater number of people.
To all this is added the need to adapt the code of the road which is currently designed for speed at the expense of the slowness of those who walk or ride.
The routes must be integrated, joining those that can be walked on, the cycle paths, rivers, railways and the roads. In this way different types of landscapes and distances can be combined.
All these models and parameters must be somehow replicable in order to optimize the work and facilitate usability.
If these work ideas seem a messy collection of ideas, in fact it is precisely the universities that could have the burden of structuring them and continuing this important work of change.
Only the true awareness that soft mobility networks are a starting point for valorization, will bring public and private investors to invest in all the infrastructures and technologies that favor accessibility.