Soft mobility in the “oblique city”

The “oblique cities” represent urban contexts particularly stimulating for the development of urban policies aimed at improving sustainable mobility. Their orography characterizes the historical urban centers, generally located in hilly areas, and provides an interesting challenge for the promotion of “soft mobility.” For such cities, the diffusion of sustainable mobility is strongly linked to their physical and functional peculiarities. Furthermore, their accessibility is intensely influenced by the steepness of urban configuration that can be very hard to overcome, in order to reach certain specific urban destinations located at higher altitudes. In this sense, and especially for these specific urban systems, it is important to individuate a system of “oblique connections” aimed at increasing urban accessibility and the usability of the global city. In Italy, for instance, where historical urban centers are frequently located in hilly areas, the use of automatized transport systems can allow citizens, as well as occasional city users (tourists, commuters, students, etc.), to overcome the differences in height comfortably, as proven in some of the more successful cases (e.g., Perugia). These technical actions are also often required to guarantee the fruition of historical centers, especially when car traffic is forbidden (permanently or temporarily) in these areas, and they represent an efficient alternative to the use of cars. Based on these considerations, this study aims to define a methodology for the planning of a network of urban connections inside the “oblique city” particularly in reference to urban historical centers characterized by steep differences in height. The methodology proposed refers to the individuation, inside the “oblique city,” of a network of urban paths for soft mobility structured through circuits, poles and oblique connections. The network is composed of a system of levelled circuits (concentric rings or open paths located at different altitudes) linked through oblique connections, which can be automatized when needed. Within the network, connections start from specific “urban poles” (open places, squares, monuments, etc.) identifiable as urban hubs in which certain specific services or attractions can be located. These hubs identify specific urban Points of Interest (POIs) within the urban system, and they can correspond to the physical intersection points between the levelled circuits and the oblique connections. The physical connections among the POIs can represent dedicated urban tourist paths (walkable or cycle lanes) able to promote a sustainable form of tourism. In this sense, the network itself can be an attractive element for improving a sustainable way to visit the city. The city of Benevento, in the south of Italy, represents a meaningful case for testing the methodology proposed, because of the peculiarity of it being a hilly town of medium dimensions (about 61.000 inhabitants), characterized both by the presence of urban functions of a metropolitan level (University, Hospital, Courthouse, etc.) and by a good level of attractiveness to tourists (about 18.000 total arrivals in 2016). The project proposes the definition of a network for soft mobility that, on one side, is aimed at increasing accessibility to the historical center, and on the other side, considers the possibility of interconnecting Benevento to other historic centers nearby (Pietralcina and Foglianise) that serve as additional poles in the network. In this sense, the network could represent both a means for the enhancement of urban mobility in Benevento and occasion for implementing collaborative policies of promotion of territorial resources using sustainable forms of mobility.