The Italian Plan for Road Safety, an innovative tool to increase pedestrian safety, equity and mobility

In Italy, only lately researches on pedestrian mobility have been promoted, even if walking is part of our culture. The reasons could rely upon the poorness of legal supports and on the lack of awareness about the importance of walking in all processes concerning mobility, sustainability and equity. Till the mid Ô90s, topics as safety, environment or street livability played a minor role in all political, social and urban planning processes, though in the Italian urban areas the highest accident rates of Europe were recorded. Important changes occurred when in these last years, the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transportation promoted many laws for financial and technical aids to local Administrations to increase pedestrian mobility. Moreover, the attention to safety problems has addressed the Ministry to issue the National Plan for Road Safety (NPRS). This document stresses the priority of meeting vulnerable users requirements and the need of drastically reducing the accidents rates; the NPRS Guidelines define some interventions to improve the traffic organisation and the urban roads by Pilot Projects, carried out by local administrations. A competition among municipalities has been promoted to award and to fund the 60 best projects. Among these, two concern a safe pedestrian home Ð school system for pupils of the juniors schools in two great Italian urban areas characterized by a high number of accidents involving vulnerable users. Both designs developed a pedestrian system connecting more schools, involving municipalities technical staffs and dwellers .