Cyclable Cities: Building Feasible Scenario through Urban Space Morphology Assessment

Cycling is a climate-friendly, cost-effective, and greenhouse gas-efficient transport mode that produces relevant positive aspects to: urban innovation (new technology and services, that is, e-mobility and public bike-sharing systems), environment (reducing emissions, traffic congestion easing, increasing energy efficiency), public health (road safety, psycho-physical wellbeing, noise reduction), urban economy (infrastructure cost saving, low service and vehicle expenditures, energy saving, creation of sustainable green jobs), and inclusive society (improving inclusion of the local population, quality of life, wellbeing). Considering the 2014 Paris Declaration of the Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European Programme (THE PEP) for "the development of a pan-European Master Plan for cycling promotion,"it is necessary to implement support tools for urban planners and designers, who, simultaneously, provide a cognitive framework able to direct urban policymaking toward active mobility models/options and sustainable urban development processes. After highlighting the good practices of European cities related to the promotion of soft active mobility and modal split that contrast the use of private cars, this study presents a "morpho-syntactic"approach-based methodology apt at analyzing the city of Potenza (county seat of the Basilicata region, southern Italy) with the intention of producing a design scenario to develop urban cycling as an alternative urban development strategy. Geomorphological analysis-based techniques have been integrated with graph theory-based space-morphological analyses using the Space Syntax Analysis and the Place Syntax Analysis. The results obtained are useful to support a decision-making process for the development of an urban cycling infrastructure scheme that integrates Potenza's active transport infrastructures (mechanized pedestrian mobility) according to a multimodal approach. With the current national cycling supportive policy framework, local authorities are in a position to adopt strategies and actions aimed at promoting cycle-tourism and urban cycling, thus improving sustainable mobility policies as a component of urban planning.