Eight hundred thousand euros to achieve twenty-three interventions in seventeen neighborhoods.
It is the “safe mobility 2023” plan that the Municipality of Brescia approved last year and has now become fully operational: the first construction site was opened three days ago in via Vannucci in San Polothen it will be the turn of another in the Oltremella area and so on, including accommodations in the Prealpino, Buffalora, Perlasca and practically in most areas of the city.
And that’s not all: in addition to this plan there are also other operations that will make the city streets even safer, starting for example from the much-discussed via Turati, along the city ring. Here the suppression of the pedestrian crossing at the beginning of the year had sparked controversy and even protests, so yesterday the deputy mayor with responsibility for mobility in Loggia Federico Manzoni, upon explicit request, assured that he «had increased the funds allocated to Brescia Mobilità to carry out theinstallation of a call-based traffic light system on this streetalthough it is too early to say where exactly it will be installed.”
Returning instead to the plan presented yesterday by the Municipality and its offices and defined as «not a spot measure, but a plan that fits into a context of continuity that has continued for years, the result of constant work to improve safety on city roads» the deputy mayor also explained how «these 23 interventions in 17 neighborhoods arrive after receiving reports and indications directly from citizens, thus showing an ever-increasing social sensitivity towards the problems generated by dangerous intersections or the presence of architectural barriers.” There are four lines of intervention along which the safe mobility plan moves: traffic calming (raised crossings to make pedestrians safe and reduce the speed of vehicles), cycle paths, removal of architectural barriers and new pedestrian crossings.
The choices were made based not only on citizens’ reports, but also by cross-referencing the accident rate data provided by the local police and all the reports received from other various institutional actors, producing a list to which the Municipality has entrusted a priority index to decide, based on the allocations made, which ones to implement. All with a constant comparison with the various neighborhood councils, fundamental for determining an adequate design of construction sites aimed at improving road traffic conditions for all users, reducing road accidents and the impacts of vehicular traffic on the environment, as well as promoting rational use of road infrastructures and continuing to improve accessibility and usability of public spaces. This year the works were assigned to the «Art Costruzioni» company from Salò and will last 287 days.
Therefore expected completion in spring 2025just in time to start again with the future plan that is being prepared in 2024 “and on which we are already working”, assures Manzoni.
