Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Councilor Censi: "A provision that has demonstrated its constant and progressive effectiveness"

Milan, January 15 2022 – Entered into force for the first time on 16 January 2012, Area C celebrates its first ten years of activity tomorrow, Sunday 16 January. Born with the aim of improving the living conditions for those who live, work, study and visit the city, it had and has the aim of reducing traffic in the Cerchia dei Bastioni and making the public transport networks more effective, encouraging their development and safeguarding the right to individual mobility while respecting the common interest.

To recount these ten years of activity, Amat (Agency for Mobility, Environment and Territory) has produced a document which, starting from the transit data collected, brings out a historical series of numbers from which it is possible to derive an analysis of the effects found since the introduction of Area C until 31 December 2021.

The data reported are obtained from the electronic gate system that controls all vehicular transit entering the area. For each license plate in transit, the necessary information is obtained for a classification of the vehicles according to the type, fuel supply and Euro class, in order to characterize the vehicle in one of the classes defined by the provision and carry out environmental analyses.

The results show that the introduction of the regulation, and the changes made to it over the years, have led to a decrease in transits in the Cerchia dei Bastioni. In fact, we start from over 90 thousand admissions recorded in 2012 (-31% compared to 2011), reaching 81 thousand in 2021, with a decrease of up to 38,5%. The 2020 figure (-46,8%) is obviously affected by the effects on travel caused by the Covid 2019 epidemic. As regards 2021, however, we can hypothesize an increase in private vehicles due to the fear of using public transport and therefore the percentage could also be overestimated.

In the breakdown of vehicle macroclasses entering the LTZ, the figure for ecological vehicles stands out which from 4,1% in 2017 (the moment in which exclusively electric and hybrid fuel systems are included in this definition) rose to 12,2% in 2021.
This data is strengthened by the analysis of the distribution of the type of power supply of the vehicles: electric ones, which in 2012 were 0,1% of all vehicles that entered Area C, in 2021 are 2,7%, while those hybrids have more than quadrupled (starting from 5,3% reaching 22,2% in 2021).

The most polluting vehicles have, over time, disappeared and last year it was recorded that 98,4% of entries were made up of Euro 5 and Euro 6 vehicles, with a prevalence of the latter, which are 54,2 ,XNUMX%.

The distribution of incoming vehicle types (people, public and private buses, goods) has not had significant variations over the years, demonstrating that there is no one type that has been particularly 'affected' by this provision.

Amat also analyzed the information on the polluting emissions of the vehicles that had access to the ZTL, highlighting the historical series over the ten years of the average weekday daytime atmospheric emissions of PM10 at the exhaust, of total PM10 (exhaust plus friction) and of nitrogen (NOx). The trend, for all these values ​​- excluding 2020 which is the data with the lowest numbers also due to the several months of lockdown - is of progressive and constant decline. In 2012, PM10 exhaust emissions were equal to one ton per year, in 2021 they reach 0,3; total PM10 goes from 4,5 tons to 1,7; nitrogen oxides range from a value of 64 tons to 14.

The general decrease in emissions of air pollutants following the activation of Area C is linked above all to vehicular technological replacement and the progressive diffusion of vehicles with a lower environmental impact. The decrease in total PM10 emissions is less pronounced than the other two pollutants, because the term total PM10 refers to atmospheric dust produced both at the exhaust and as a result of mechanical friction phenomena of various parts of the vehicle.

“The data provided by Amat – explains Mobility Councilor Arianna Censi – tell us that Area C is a measure that has had a direct effect on traffic in the city center and its effect has consolidated over time and continues to work. We can also say that its introduction has contributed to significantly reducing the pollution generated by the cars that have passed through it over the years. This is also due to the fact that, at the same time, it has contributed to changing our city's car fleet, progressively leading citizens towards more ecological choices which will benefit all Milanese people and not just those residing in the ZTL. This momentum has obviously been supported by the Administration which in recent years has invested over 20 million euros in contributions for the purchase of vehicles with a lower environmental impact".

From 2015 to today, seven different tenders have been promoted by the municipal administration, one per year for a total investment of 23 million and 749 thousand euros, partly intended for residents of Milan and partly for businesses, as a contribution to the purchase of vehicles with lower environmental impact.

“Area C has been and continues to be one of the most important measures that are part of the complex strategy implemented by the Administration on mobility – concludes Censi – which also includes Area B and the 30 Zones and which extends to Open Squares, cycle paths and the development of the diffusion of sharing vehicles, the result of the great work carried out and the collaboration between the Mobility Directorate, Atm and Amat. All these interventions are aimed at making Milan more liveable and 'greener', with particular attention to the health of citizens, progressively reducing the number of cars in circulation and at the same time safeguarding everyone's right to mobility".

Il document of Amat