Strade Aperte — Milan's Pandemic-Era Pop-Up Cycle Lane Programme

As Italy's national COVID-19 lockdown cut Milan's car traffic by roughly 75% in spring 2020 and visibly reduced air pollution, the City of Milan, led by Mayor Giuseppe Sala and mobility deputy mayor Marco Granelli, launched the Strade Aperte ('Open Streets') plan in April 2020. The plan used low-cost paint, signage and bollards, rather than full construction, to reallocate up to 35 kilometres of road space from cars to cyclists and pedestrians, alongside wider pavements and new 30 km/h zones, on corridors including Corso Venezia, Corso Buenos Aires and Viale Monza.
By 30 April 2020, 18 construction sites for the new pop-up lanes were already under way, and city hall reported nearly 3,000 citizen submissions in April 2020 requesting specific street changes, which fed into the plan's routing. The cycling advocacy group FIAB Milano Ciclobby ran a volunteer 12-hour weekday census on 16 September 2020 at fixed count points: passages at Corso Venezia/Via Senato rose from 3,241 (2019) to 5,744 (2020), a 77% increase, and at Corso Venezia/Planetario from 4,621 (2017) to 7,077 (2020), up 53%.
The plan drew sustained opposition from merchants and residents, particularly along Corso Buenos Aires, over lost car parking and narrowed traffic lanes; some short pop-up sections were subsequently removed or redesigned after these disputes, and Strade Aperte is frequently cited in Italian coverage as one of the city's most contested infrastructure debates as well as one of its most internationally celebrated pandemic responses. It remains one of the most widely referenced examples of pandemic-era tactical urbanism, cited by outlets including the World Economic Forum and the Guardian alongside comparable schemes in Paris and Bogotá.

Read the full analysis: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2020/04/milan-covid-19-coronavirus-lockdown-reducing-car-use/