Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Monitoring from April to September in the 15 roads entering the city equipped with cameras

Milan, October 17 2019 - In recent days, the data relating to the first six months of activation of Area B was processed, the provision which through a system of progressive access bans blocks the most polluting cars from entering the city.

At the moment, of the 186 access gates planned in total in Milan, 15 are monitored with cameras and it is on these that the monitoring of transits has been concentrated, detecting a decrease in passages entering the city of approximately 13%, which translates in approximately 12 thousand fewer vehicle transits every day (during the last week of January 2019, used as a sample, there were approximately 89 thousand transits per day).

The data refers to the semester from April to September. In fact, the measure came into force on February 25, with the month of March used for pre-exercise as required by law.

The surveys (never carried out for a continuous period of this duration) made it possible to verify that the morning 'peak' on weekdays was between 7.30 and 9, with an overall average, in the 15 streets, of 4.500 transits every 30 minutes (i.e. 150 vehicles per minute). The weekday afternoon peak was between 17pm and 19pm with an average of 4.000 transits every 30 minutes (133 vehicles per minute).

At the same times, traffic is reduced to 1/3 on Saturday morning and is equal to 2/3 on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Almost no variation between weekdays and holidays for the off-peak time slots, in particular between 10.30am and 13pm and after 21pm.

The first step of Area B prohibits entry to Euro 0 petrol and Euro 0, 1, 2, 3 diesel vehicles and Euro 0, 1 two-stroke motorbikes from Monday to Friday, from 7.30 am to 19.30 pm, excluding holidays . There were approximately 15 thousand citizens with vehicles subject to these bans and who passed through the 24 camera gates at least once; 93,5% of these passed through the gates a maximum of 10 times; 56,3% passed through only once and only 111 exhausted the 50 entries allowed in the first year of the ban.

As required by the provision, everyone received the information letter on the first pass and the collapse in transits following receipt of the communication highlights its effectiveness. The municipal administration has thus achieved the objective of helping these citizens to understand the law, know it and adopt the right behavior by not passing where prohibited and avoiding the potential accumulation of sanctions that could occur with this type of measure. The letter also contains information to access all the tools useful for cooperating with the Municipality on the environmental objectives of the measure, including the indication of how to access the 8 million euros of contributions made available for vehicle replacement.

The transits carried out under probable sanctions were approximately 2.800, of which 40% in the month of September (previously the vehicles benefited from the 50 free entries); the first sanctions for environmental bans refer to entries that occurred in the second part of last June; the total transits carried out by vehicles in conflict with the rules of area B (exemptions plus sanctions) constitute approximately 1,2% of the total transits.

The experimentation of the "black box" for street vendors which allows them to circulate in the city with Euro 3 diesel vehicles for a limited number of kilometers is currently used by 266 street vendors. Of these, 89% traveled on average up to 6 km per day in Milan during Area B times. As of 30 September, only 28 street vendors, 10% of those taking part in the trial, had used all the available kilometers and the first 4 passages subject to sanctions.

“These first six months represent a first decisive step in the implementation of Area B – declares Marco Granelli, councilor for Mobility – which demonstrates with these numbers that it is a potentially effective measure. We are certainly at the first steps and the real balance can only be defined when all the cameras are installed and therefore in about a year, but in the meantime the concrete signs are there, and we are certain that Area B, Area C, the enhancements of public transport and of sustainable mobility, together with the behavior of citizens, will help us in the objective of reducing congestion and air pollution and moving decisively towards a city that wants to urgently and concretely combat climate change on the planet".   

Currently the gates equipped with cameras are located in via Anassagora, Pirelli, viale Sarca, via Giuditta Pasta, Gallarate, Tofano, Basel, Zurich, Gonin, Baroni, Cassinis, Rogoredo, Carlo Feltrinelli, Mecenate, Fantoli.

To date, another ten cameras have been installed and connected awaiting the start of the pre-operation period (15 or 30 days based on the authorization of the Ministry) which could take place in November, allowing us to start with the complete detection activity of the transits within the year. Another 13 cameras are currently being installed and connected and should be ready for testing and requesting authorization from the Ministry of Transport by autumn. By January 2020, another 50 cameras should be installed and connected, thus reaching the number of 88 cameras placed. Completion of the 187 gates is scheduled for autumn 2020. 

Thanks to the Municipality's calls for contributions to support the replacement of vehicles, to date 554.800 euros have been 'booked' in favor of 95 citizens (with an average contribution per vehicle of 3.550 euros) and 35 businesses (average contribution per goods vehicle of 6.200 euros), relating to 130 scrappable vehicles; To date, 104.000 euros have already been paid, equal to 18 scrapped vehicles.

Finally, the information system of Area B and Area C of the counters at the Duomo mezzanine M1-M3 and of the telephone call center, which since July has also responded to questions on the subject of regulated parking, managed, in the period between February and September 2019 , over 11.900 requests of which approximately 5 thousand for Area B (45% of requests), 3.800 for Area C (32%), 2.700 for parking (23%).

In the month of September alone, with the subsequent step of Area B which from 1 October also bans the entry into Milan of Euro 4 diesel personal registered vehicles, the system managed 3.324 requests, equal to 333 per day, of which 45% for parking, 35% for Area B and 20% for Area C.