And yet it moves: cycling mobility in Rome still lags behind other cities, but the Capitoline Assembly has approved a series of measures in favour of those who want to get around by bike.
Rome is making strides in favour of cycling mobility despite the difficulties it has faced in recent years. Over two years, the Capitoline Assembly has approved a series of measures including new cycle lanes, electric bike sharing, the Grande raccordo anulare delle biciclette (Grab), bike racks and Bike Parks near stations and institutional buildings, to name just a few projects in the pipeline.
The Italian capital is going through a difficult period, grappling with a series of problems that are severely testing the quality of life of its residents. Mobility and public transport are also in poor shape, with potholes on the roads and buses breaking down in service.
Against such a challenging backdrop, it is well worth acknowledging the effort that the city's administration has made over the past year — with its share of ups and downs — to reverse course in favour of cycling mobility in Rome.
Rome has tested both traditional bike sharing, with poor results, and free-floating bike sharing. Now it is the turn of ebike sharing: 78 bicycles and e-hubs for parking them near underground stations will arrive in the Eur district, where Formula E was held. A pilot project that has secured seven hundred thousand euros in European funding and will also enable the development of a dedicated app.
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Since June 2018, one Sunday a month certain areas of Rome are transformed into a single twenty-four-kilometre cycling and pedestrian road network. Looking ahead, there is an intention to turn some of these areas into permanent environmental islands.
Modelled on the European approach, the Bike Parks will be built near railway and underground stations, as well as at some of Rome's main public transport hubs. In the meantime, Roma Capitale is installing bike racks at underground stops and at the offices of several Municipi.
Since March 2018, an amendment to Rome's building regulations has been in force, allowing bicycles to be stored in the shared spaces of apartment buildings. "We used the word ricovero [storage] rather than parcheggio [parking] to avoid confusion with the parking spaces provided under urban planning standards," explains Enrico Stefàno, chair of the Mobility Commission of Roma Capitale, who has personally committed to achieving this goal. Whereas previously residents had to request permission at a building assembly to park their bike in shared spaces, it is now a right that can only be denied under specific conditions.
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The unblocking of several cycle lane projects on some of the city's main roads — known to Romans as "consolari" because they follow the ancient roads built during Ancient Rome — began with the start of construction work on the cycle lane along Via Nomentana, reclaiming a section of the road separated from the traffic lanes.
Also in the pipeline is the creation of cycle routes marked on the asphalt in the eastern part of the capital, along Via Tuscolana and Via Prenestina. These two cycle lanes will connect with the existing cycle lane on Viale Palmiro Togliatti, which intersects both roads.
Alongside the secondary consular roads, cycle lanes will also be built on major thoroughfares such as Viale Guglielmo Marconi in the Ostiense area and Viale dei Romanisti in the Torre Spaccata area.
Its creators have named it W.e.b – Way endless bikelane, or the endless cycle lane, since once completed it would trace a kind of web to be explored on two wheels. In practice, the project promotes a series of interventions ranging from the construction of ten cycle lanes on the consular roads covering at least 150 kilometres, to three ring roads to be built on inter-municipal roads, four velostations to be built inside reclaimed industrial buildings, and up to thirty "zone 30" areas to be created in the most densely populated neighbourhoods.
The endless cycle lane is the only cycling-dedicated project that has managed to make it into the top ten interventions voted by citizens as priorities for Rome's Piano urbano di mobilità sostenibile.
After a period of uncertainty, the Grande raccordo anulare delle biciclette (Grab) has now become a project championed by the Capitoline Assembly and funded as a priority by the Italian government. The route is a circular loop of around forty kilometres passing through some of Rome's most historic and distinctive locations, including Via Appia Antica and several neighbourhoods in the eastern part of the capital. The aim is to make the Grab an attractive route for tourists as well as a practical one for cycling commuters.
Not all the measures have been welcomed with enthusiasm by cycling mobility associations; however, in recent months cycling mobility in Rome has become an issue that the administration of the Italian capital can no longer avoid addressing.