Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

HEALTH

Milan announces major expansion of cycle paths after lockdown

Milan hopes to emerge from lockdown with cleaner and greener transport options in place, as the city announced an expansion of bike and pedestrian paths to protect commuters from infection risk and stop a spike in car use as lockdown is eased.

Published: 21 April 2020 12:52 CEST
Milan announces major expansion of cycle paths after lockdown
Cyclists working for a food delivery company ride through the empty square in front of Milan's Duomo. Photo: AFP

Local authorities announced on Tuesday that 35 kilometres (22 miles) of city streets will be made more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists in the coming months, as it begins a major project to transform roads in the city centre.

The ambitious Strade Aperte (Open Streets) plan aims to reallocate street space from cars to pedestrians and cyclists, making it safer and easier for people to leave their vehicles at home once lockdown is lifted.

READ ALSO: Italian PM set to unveil lockdown 'phase two' plans this week

It will include temporary cycle lanes, new, widened pavements, pedestrian and cyclist priority streets, and reduced speed limits in the city centre, officials said.

Under the planned “phase two” of Italy's lockdown, businesses are expected to start gradually reopening from May onwards.

But there are concerns about the virus being transmitted in crowds on public transport as people get back to work, particularly in compact and densely-populated Milan.

Milan transport authorities say metro services in the city will run at 30 percent capacity in order to allow social distancing.

This means that, instead of transporting the usual 1.4 million passengers per day, the Milan metro will only be able to carry 400 thousand people daily.

The fear is that this could result in a spike in car traffic.

A near-empty metro carriage in Milan on April 9th. Photo: AFP

“We cannot think of this meaning a million more cars on the road,” Milan transport councillor Marco Granelli told Radio Lombardy on Tuesday.

“To avoid this, we will have to strengthen two-wheeled transport. This is why we're putting in place an extraordinary plan to create new cycle paths,” he said.

Milan city hall is “preparing documents and plans to add about 35 kilomtres of new cycle routes to the little more than 200 already existing,” he said.

Work on the project is expected to begin as soon as May on the usually busy Corso Buenos Aires, and will continue over the summer, he explained.

it is hoped that Milan's scheme will be used as a roadmap for other cities in Italy, and around the world.

The economic capital of Italy, Milan is also one of the most heavily polluted parts of the country. Huge swathes of northern Italy have long suffered serious problems with air pollution.

 
In Italy, cars remain by far the most-used means of transport. 65.3 percent of all journeys are made by car, according to environmental group Legambiante, with the emissions from some 38 million cars choking Italy's towns and cities before the nationwide lockdown began.
 
Italy has repeatedly been reprimanded by the European Union for regularly exceeding the bloc's recommended limits on air pollution.
 
Many towns and cities struggle wth congestion and pollution as public transport provision and cycle lanes remain inadequate.

READ ALSO: 

Air pollution has long been a serious concern among Milan's residents, and international studies are now trying to ascertain whether there's a link between air pollution and high Covid-19 mortality rates seen around Milan.

Lombardy, the region of which Milan is the capital, is the part of Italy by far most seriously affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Published: 11 September 2023 12:48 CEST
Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

READ ALSO:

Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

SHOW COMMENTS