Today, October 25, 2022, the conference “Sulla Stessa Strada. Public-Private: a success story”: a moment of discussion on the broader issues of road safety, starting from the first results of the “Milano Metropolitan Safety Project“, one of the main smart city projects in Europe for the reduction of accidents, which the Metropolitan City of Milan is developing with Safety21.

The aim is to achieve the European strategic goal “2030 Zero victims on the roads” and allow a more effective control of the territory, thanks to the use of innovative technology, IoT devices and cloud data management and storage systems.

Beatrice Uguccioni, Councillor delegated to Mobility and Infrastructure, opens the morning, declaring ‘Milano Metropolitan Safety Project is grafted on the theme, for us a priority, of the Culture of Safety that must be declined in all its aspects from the protection of the planet, to urban regeneration, to safety in the workplace, to accessibility and metropolitan urban inclusiveness that sees us at the forefront.’

More than two years after its activation – which began in 2020 – Progetto Sicurezza Milano Metropolitana now has 132 IoT devices already installed on Milan’s provincial roads, systems capable of monitoring parking areas, traffic and pedestrian crossings, and traffic light control devices, average and instantaneous speed detection devices.

All the tools communicate with the Safety21 Titan® platform supplied to the Local Police in order to make the fight against violations of the highway code more efficient, faster and more sustainable with a substantial reduction in the time spent by resources in the field. The control systems of the territory also allow, moreover, not only to monitor the viability and prevent accidents, but also to detect crimes and risk situations. For example, the surveillance cameras of the rest areas have allowed, thanks to interoperability with other police forces, the identification of perpetrators of serious crimes such as threats, private violence, attempted murder and theft.

“The key points of the project are three: first, safety as accessibility: an unsafe or “disordered” territory punishes the most fragile and rewards the bullies. Second, safety as legality: an orderly road is a road in which traffic follows the provisions of the Highway Code and those who transgress, transgress the law. Third, safety as culture: the protection of citizens’ health is a public duty and the control of the territory and the conscious use of tools helps everyone. Finally, the project works because the basic requirements for the usefulness of project financing exist: a serious proposal from a reliable supplier and the ability of the Public Administration to measure and analyze the results” says Maria Cristina Pinoschi, Deputy General Manager of the Metropolitan City of Milan and Head of Project Finacing

“The project financing tool – says Gianluca Longo, CEO of Safety21 – represents a virtuous example of collaboration between the Public Administration and technological partners to support the programs that the body has conducted so far in the field of road safety with the added value of Cloud technology, IoT and data analysis. The high technological capacity of Titan® allows it to manage a significant number of equipment, extending the program to the implementation of various services, always updated, for an increasingly wide security on the territory and a more efficient management, for the Police Forces of the resources used”.

The morning continued with the round table moderated by journalist Fabio Massa and opened by Marco Granelli, Councillor for Security and Civil Protection of the Municipality of Milan. Other speakers included: Giordano Biserni, President of ASAPS, Maurizio Crispino, Full Professor of the Politecnico di Milano and member of the Superior Council of Public Works, Stefano Guarnieri, Vice President of the Lorenzo Guarnieri Onlus Association and Simonetta Lo Brutto, First Director of the State Police and Director of the Milan Traffic Police Section.

From 2019 to 2021 (2020 is not very indicative, due to lockdowns) according to ACI/Eupolis data, road accidents in the area of the Metropolitan City of Milan fell from 13,607 to 11,385, 16% less. As for the deaths, it went from 106 to 87, a decrease of 18%, while the wounded went from 18,097 to 14,390, a good 20% less. The Metropolitan City of Milan is, for this reason, among the territories where more human lives have been saved than in the previous 12 months. Compared to an analysis of the effectiveness of speed control instruments, the primary cause of accidents on the territory, the data acquired so far within the project show the positive action of active control systems.

Milano Metropolitan Safety Project, a virtuous example of public-private partnership, and this conference was an opportunity to share the path and the tools put in place capable of responding to the different needs of road safety and the territory with a view to innovation, sustainability, simplification and transparency.