Access control in city centres: the Rome’s case

The paper deals with one of the most effective measures of the mobility policy recently implemented by Rome Municipality, the city center Access Restriction, according to the results achieved within the MIRACLES - Multi Initiatives for Rationalised Accessibility and Clean Liveable EnvironmentS Demonstration Project, funded by the European Commission in which such measure was analyzed and assessed by University of Rome during a four-year period. The Access Restriction is mainly based on the implementation of the Access Control System (ACS) i.e. a set of “Electronic Gates” around the historical centre, to limit private vehicle access to Rome’s central areas, creating a Limited Traffic Zone. The pedestrianization of some historical areas, the free access to central areas to catalysed vehicles only, the increase of the transit supply are some of the manifold accompany measures that supported the ACS implementation, along with studies on the feasibility of pricing and the reorganization of the delivery system. The measures were evaluated on how they could affect the urban area in terms of impacts on traffic, energy consumption, economy and environment, as well. A simulation methodology and a traffic model were applied in the first phase of the assessment, i.e the ex-ante evaluation; in particular, two simulation scenarios were studied “without” and “with” the restriction measures, depicting a kind of do-nothing scenario for the former and for the latter a do-something plan. The paper will in-depth describe such process and the positive outcomes mainly in terms of pollution reduction and changes in traffic