An antifragile strategy for Rome post-Covid mobility

We are aware that we will have to live with COVID-19 at least until the vaccination of a minimum percentage of the population will guarantee the achievement of “herd immunity”. Until then, it is proved that the most effective strategy to limit contagion is social distancing. Despite the adoption of countermeasures, this strategy is having heavy effects on the economy and social relations, putting the issue of people’s mobility at the centre of attention (OECD, 2020a; Un-habitat, 2020). This moment must therefore represent the opportunity to build an urban resilience strategy around mobility policies based on necessary “anti-fragile” scenarios (Taleb, 2008; Blečić & Cecchini, 2016), seizing this phase for an urban and social transformation capable of strengthening the complex “city” system toward “a new normal” (OECD, 2020b). In some Italian and foreign cities, the partial reopening carried out from May 2020 led to the resumption of some productive activities. The consequent increase in the flows has given rise to a complex challenge related to the reorganization of mobility. Rome has put in place measures such as the strengthening of public transport during peak hours and the start of the construction of 150 km of cycle paths, already foreseen by the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) of 2019. However, it falls behind cities like Milan and Bologna, who have drawn up specific documents such as Adaptation Strategies and Emergency Plans for Sustainable Mobility, promptly engaged in the reorganization of mobility following the example of other European cities (such as Barcelona, Paris, Vienna) that pursue clear objectives and long-standing strategies of environmental, social and economic sustainability. Nevertheless, the backwardness of Rome also deals with the complexity of the urban “form” of the city and its immeasurable extension, as well as to the paucity of municipal mobility policies of the last decades. In view of a “post-COVID” phase, two essential factors are overriding: the demand for travel (Who should move? From where to where? How?) and the supply of urban and metropolitan mobility. However, it is necessary to counter immediately the risk of an uncontrolled return to the use of private vehicles, which, for Rome in particular, would mean the collapse of the city, also related to an immediate increase in atmospheric pollution and roads accidents. The paper is aimed at proposing an anti-fragile strategy for Roman mobility, starting from the functional and morphological analysis of the Roman settlement system, related to its articulation and specificities, which constitute a fundamental component in evaluating the potential and weaknesses of new mobility scenarios, highlighting the relationships between forms of the city and mobility models. The proposal for a planning methodology, based on the identification of the “elementary urban units” of the “theoretical grid” (Vittorini, 1987; Cerasoli, 2008), is supported by the international debate and practices of the last decades (Superillas in Barcelona; 15-minutes city model; Good Moove Plan in Bruxelles) and by the arising temporary practices in the Covid-19 phase. A planning methodology that will be able to easily switch from emergency to ordinary, combining ordinary and post-COVID extraordinary funds.