Soil liberation in the multimodal city

Abstract

New mobility does not just mean technological innovation, but also a change in lifestyles, modes of transport and services, ways of doing business and governance of the common good, represented by urban space and service infrastructures. Just as the car shaped the city of the 20th century with all its distortions, the new mobility systems of the current millennium could redefine the use of urban space with a new, more balanced footprint. The new mobility could drastically reduce the total number of vehicles in circulation (with their interchange and continuous use) and free up large areas of the city, for example parking spaces, which could be used for other purposes, and car service areas, which could be used as widespread freight delivery hubs.In this scenario, motorway service stations would become more similar to interports, exchange points serving not only travelers but also and primarily segments of metropolitan areas, small cities and territorial areas of influence, creating a system of "cells" of relevance.Today, therefore, there is growing awareness that new mobility also requires a different approach to the city and its design, given that the electrical infrastructure contributes to the (re)definition of urban space.For this reason, cities must change their approach and make use of technology to understand where and how to intervene, with the primary objective of restituting the space taken up by the streets, which were designed for cars, to citizens and their expanded needs. New electric, as well as connected, shared and multimodal mobility is in fact an integral part of the new cities being built.More consolidated cities will also obtain substantial benefits: a case study applied to the entire urban area of Florence demonstrates the potential of this revolution which is already underway.