Tempo di lettura: 3 minutes
Approach
Milano Metropolitana Safety Project is a multi-annual action plan entrusted to the concession holder (the temporary grouping of companies Safety21 SpA / Municipia SpA) following a European call for tenders. It is one of the largest EU Smart Cities integrated projects aimed at reducing accidents and protecting pedestrians and cyclists.
One of the main purposes of the measures laid down in the Milano Metropolitana Safety Project is protecting the territory and the environment, as well as fighting against waste dumping, occurring frequently in rest areas along the highways.
Solution
To reach these objectives, a number of modern tools, smart apps and IoT apps for road monitoring are being implemented. The plan consists of installing, in specific sectors, state-of-the-art video monitoring systems of rest areas. Specifically, these are 24/7 motion-activated cameras with an “intelligent scene analysis” system. These motion-activated cameras are able to detect any unusual activities in rest areas as well as register any violations (such as illegal waste dumping); in addition, the cameras will automatically alert the local Police and provide the relevant surveillance footage. The Project will lead to the installation of up to hundred video surveillance systems along the road network controlled by Città Metropolitana di Milano.
Consistently with an effort to protect the environment, the Project has also foreseen to install traffic monitoring systems – up to 60 systems – which will provide useful data and information to process analysis and schedule interventions aimed at improving traffic, reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality.
Another aim of the Milano Metropolitana Safety Project, in compliance with EU legislation, is implementing advanced technological measures and solutions able to avoid and reduce the number of accidents – and therefore, fatalities and injuries – and to improve safety conditions, especially for pedestrians, the most vulnerable road users.
In 2019, road accidents in Italy amounted to 172,183, causing 241,384 injuries and 3,173 fatalities.
Lombardy alone saw 32,560 accidents that injured 44,400 people and killed 438. The Milan metropolitan area alone saw 13,607 accidents, 18,097 injuries and 106 fatalities.
With respect to pedestrians, 96 were killed in Lombardy, that is, approximately 22% of the total, and 3,886 were injured. In the Città Metropolitana di Milano area, last year, 2,018 accidents involved pedestrians.
In this context, the road network controlled by Città Metropolitana di Milano, as part of the planned programme, will undergo a series of preventive actions, some of which have already been implemented. Among them, the installation – in the areas identified – of a state-of-the-art control system for pedestrian crossing areas. The system consists of 4 high-intensity LED flashing lights installed next to pedestrian crossings and two more external devices, automatically activated upon detecting pedestrians, which alert passing vehicles. This solves the problem of poor visibility (daytime and nighttime). The system is equipped with a 360 degrees recording camera, in a round-the-clock certified cloud, registering everything going on in and around the crossing area, thus ensuring adequate surveillance of the area and access to recordings should an accident occur (only and exclusively by the local Police). The project involves the installation of 90 devices in total; within the end of the year, there will be 3, 2 of which have already been installed.
Placing some of the most innovative speed control devices will contribute to the action plan and increase road safety standards. These devices detect speeding violations, check that maximum speed limits are respected and can capture images and useful information in real time, thus recording the infringement unequivocally.
With a smart-oriented aim to optimize processes, all technological devices deployed by the Project are managed in a simple and effective way by Città Metropolitana di Milano, through a unique, state-of-the-art technology platform integrating all IoT control devices of the territory: Titan.
All values behind the Milano Metropolitana Safety Project will also be explored in a number of training and awareness programs aimed at improving safe driving practices, specifically targeting new generations, with a series of educational classes for school-aged children and young people. Organized in collaboration with exceptional partners such as Ducati and the ASAPS Foundation, these events will involve 156 schools based in the area and well over 110,000 students.
