Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 402 to 476. It then served as the capital of the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths until it was re-conquered in 540 by the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine). Afterwards, the city formed the centre of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna until the invasion of the Franks in 751, after which it became the seat of the Kingdom of the Lombards. Thanks to its brilliant past, the complex of early Christian monuments of Ravenna is in the list of Italian UNESCO heritage sites, since 1996.

The Planning Mobility Office (Mobility and Traffic Service), deals with the strategic planning functions of mobility, including analysis and development. The planning covers all transport systems, both public and private, and non-motorized.
Due to the urban dimension of the city and to the environmental aspects and quality of life, sustainable mobility has taken on a particular importance, which in recent years has been enhanced with experiences and actions listed below:

• the project participated Ciclo.pe (cycle-pedestrian mobility);
• the installation of charging points for electric vehicles interoperable with the use of regional technological system "I move";
• regional harmonisation of access rules for electric vehicles to the urban center;
• regional harmonisation of access rules to the LTZ (limited traffic zone) of vehicles for the distribution of goods.
   

In addition, the Municipality of Ravenna, has joined:

• National Smart City Observatory, with the intent of improving the image and competitiveness of the city, improve the accessibility of the city to various categories of users through the use of existing infrastructure, optimizing and updating both the capabilities and the organization;
• Italian network CIVINET and the European network ENDURANCE, in order to share experiences and best practices for the development and implementation of strategies, policies and measures in the field of sustainable mobility.

Finally it should be noted that the Administration is participating in the project BUMP for the development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans.
The Municipality of Ravenna has approved the plan of Cycling mobility in the year 2012. The Municipality wants to keep this tool updated through periodic monitoring of the progress of measures and interventions.
 

Through planning tools intends to pursue the following aims:

1. promote the use of bicycles as an alternative means of transport to motorized vehicles, both in regular home-work trips and home-schooling than in occasional trips for other purposes (leisure, purchases, etc.);
2. improve safety for vulnerable users, pedestrians and cyclists;
3. promote the general improvement of the quality of the urban environment;
4. share and encourage best practices to encourage innovations and improvements in the field of bicycle mobility.
    

The Municipality of Ravenna has worked in several EU projects:

• START project financed by EIE Programme: the overall goal is to reduce energy use by making the freight traffic in the cities more efficient, by consolidation of deliveries, improved load factors and greater ure of more energy efficient vehicles.
• CITYPORT financed by Cadses Programme: the theme is traffic congestion, atmospheric pollution and worsening of life quality. The projects aims to developing new transport and freight distribution methodologies.
• BUMP – training course financed by EU: provides managers and technical officials of the municipalities technical and practical skills needed to plan and manage sustainable mobility and peri-urban and accompanies the government more motivated in drawing up their PUMS, the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. Transnational exchanges-including networking activities among the participants of the courses and visits to the 'BUMP Cities' by international delegations make-BUMP opportunity for sharing and learning and promotion of the participating cities.
• EMAS: The EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a management instrument developed by the European Commission for companies and other organisations to evaluate, report, and improve their environmental performance. Ravenna is the first Municipality in Italy (with more of 150.000 inhabitants) EMAS certificated.

The General Plan of Urban Trafic has been approved in 2014 and it includes also the Plan for a Sustainable Mobility, developed thanks to the BUMB project.
National legislation on car parks of persons with disabilities requires that at least 2% of the parking should be reserved to them. In Ravenna this parameter is respected in every parking areas. Moreover, in the old town center, the parking lots used to cars of disabled exceed 3%. The project "The city is for everyone. Let’s make Ravenna Free from Barriers" (2010) has enabled to launch a social communication campaign to sensitize citizens on the issue of barriers and on the mobility right of persons with disabilities. In order to point out disabled parking, an awareness campaign has been initiated by placing signs bearing the words "Do you want my place? Take my handicap".

Still on transport, we should talk about public transport and its accessibility. 95% of buses in the city of Ravenna are provided with platforms that facilitate the entry and exit of persons with disabilities. In the General Plan of Urban Traffic, it was launched the "One stop for all" project, which provides along with the installation of smart balls from which it is easy to obtain information about bus timetables, the addition of a system or an application that allows mobile phones of blind people to automatically connect to the smart balls and to receive, with a voice message, the information that they need.

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