Naples (Italy)
Naples is a city of 975,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples, Italy. It is the third most populous city in the country after Rome and Milan. The city faces typical challenges of mobility, while the fabulously narrow streets explain the high number of scooters...
According to 2001 figures from the Italian National Survey Institute, Naples's modal split was 48.6 percent for private cars; 6.9 percent for motorcycles; 16.2 percent for public buses; 3.0 percent for school and company buses; 6.9 percent for rail services; 18.4 percent for walking and 0 percent for cycling.
Naples has a large public transport network with trams, buses and trolleybuses. In addition, four funiculars and three public elevators help urban travelers negotiate the city's steep terrain.
The Naples Metro, an underground rail system, integrates surface rail lines and the city's metro stations. Suburban rail service is provided by four different operators. This network is coordinated by the regional government through the Campania Agency for Sustainable Mobility. An integrated tariff system allows travel across all forms of public transport within Naples.
Neapolitan streets are famously narrow, so the favoured modes of personal motorised transit are hatchback cars and scooters.
As a port, Naples has a rich provision of public marine transport, including ferries, hydrofoils and SWATH catamaran services, with connections inside the Neopolitan Province and more distant seaports.
In 2011, Naples was pursuing a project to promote cycling, financed jointly by the European Union, the Campania Region and the city administration, for a total of EUR 1.5 million.
It involves the construction of a preferred route for bicycles that winds throughout the city for over 20 km, never straying far from the coastline.
The final route design was admitted to financing by the region in late February 2011. The main objective of the project is to create a sustainable transport network that integrates the city's public transport systems with the bicycle.
The design took care not to interfere with automobile traffic while allowing bikes to travel on existing motor corridors. Bike use is encouraged by creating a continuous, barrier-free path with dedicated signage and strategic placement of street furniture.
Naples has a system of limited traffic zones (ZTLĀ in Italian) which place restrictions on the use of motor vehicles for the sake of easing congestion and reducing air pollution. The restrictions vary according to emissions rating of the vehicle, time period and place.
The principle zone extends across the entire city and places strong restrictions on the movement of vehicles during morning rush hours Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and the evening rush hour on Thursday. The rules encourage use of public transport and car pooling, and exempt only those private vehicles that meet the highest emissions standards.
Although ample information is available about different initiatives that the city has undertaken to advance sustainable transport, there is little published data on results achieved. Neither was there information about the role of civic partnerships in Naples's sustainable mobility efforts.
