Shaping the Sustainable Urban Mobility. The Catania Case Study

The increasing complexity of cities will require a greater level of integration between land use policies and transport planning. In this chapter, we present the case study of Catania, a medium sized metropolitan area in Southern Italy where recent investments are changing the urban railway network considerably. In spite of the lack of integration between land use and transport planning, this example demonstrates that the construction of a new metro line has a substantial potential for revamping outdated planning practices, promoting a comprehensive approach towards a strategic planning of the metropolitan area. The level of traffic congestion and the related environmental problems of the examined area make the proposed case study particularly relevant within the framework of sustainable mobility policies.