Download PDF
The Municipality of Ascoli Piceno, between 2020 and 2021, received multiple funding related to cycling mobility: the design of the Tronto Cycle Path, the ITI project, regional funding for the construction of bike stations at railway stations, and resources allocated to urban cycle paths according to the DM 12/08/2020. Therefore, it needed a plan to coordinate interventions, also providing a broader perspective on individual projects. The Biciplan was considered the most suitable tool as a link between various projects and planning efforts.
The Biciplan is a strategic plan: it follows a logical process that starts from identifying Issues, defines Objectives, outlines Strategies, and finally prepares Actions. To bring the individual back to the center of the mobility system, as proposed by the plan’s vision, active citizen involvement throughout the entire process was necessary. The communication of the plan to the population played a crucial role, and the two participation events, one during the drafting of the Knowledge Framework and one at the end of the project, served to disseminate the plan among the citizens, but above all, to produce project outcomes.
The first workshop in February 2022 focused on issues and strategies. Two thematic tables were set up on home-school and home-work commutes, and two forums were dedicated to stakeholders and citizens. Each meeting included the presentation of the knowledge framework, a real-time survey using Mentimeter, and a mapping of issues in a laboratory format. The second workshop in July 2022 focused on strategies and actions, through a citizens’ forum and a participation event in Piazza del Popolo. The forum took place in two phases: presentation of the plan and a workshop.
During the workshop, participants were provided with green stickers with a smiling face, yellow ones with a perplexed smile, and red ones with a sad smile. Using these stickers, they had to prioritize actions: a green sticker on a highly priority action, a yellow sticker on a moderately priority action, and a red sticker on an action that was not a priority at all.
At the event in Piazza del Popolo, a map displaying the actions was placed on an easel, and citizens of all ages were interviewed about cycling. Those who wanted could vote using the same sticker method. While the number of citizens interviewed was small, the result is very significant because the sample represents people who are not familiar with the Plan but have shown interest in cycling-related topics.
Participation worked for the BiciPlan of Ascoli Piceno as a stimulus in the initial phase to delve into and address certain themes, and as a guideline for implementation in the final phase. Among the most significant outcomes of the first workshop is the participation of the student association “Apply Community”, whose suggestions have allowed actions related to school accessibility to gain strength in the Plan. The second workshop, thanks to the impetus from active citizenship to see those interventions for the current system’s safety realized first, allowed for a calibration of intervention priorities.
