Sicurezza e connettività delle reti pedonali: nuovi strumenti per l'indagine e il progetto / Safety and connectivity in pedestrian networks: new tools for the analysis and design

The paper presents a methodology, both analytical and operational, which aims to support the application of sustainable mobility models in dense and complex urban contexts like Italian cities, especially oriented to ensure the pedestrian system the following essential requirements: safety, continuity, connectivity and attractiveness. By referring to the case study of Florence, with its geometric and functional extreme heterogeneity of the street network, a GIS model for measuring and mapping variations in width of street cross-sections has been developed and applied to the whole urban area. As the same street widths may match with different ty-pical cross-sections according to the service level of the street, the dimensional data provided by the model in any point of the network let easily find the range of compatible solutions meeting two major objectives in the reordering of the existing network: on one side, defining the main 50 km/h street pattern in which 30 km/h home zones are included; on the other side, reorganizing neighborhoods by means of safe local pedestrian systems connecting public spaces and utilities, shopping facilities, public transport stops etc..