CARAVEL Final Project Report EN - CIVITAS

One typical
narrow lane
of Genoa’s
historical centre
BLUAREA park pricing
scheme
The BLUAREA scheme
(www.bluareagenova.it) applies
a simple but very efficient pricing
system. The city centre is subject
to pricing and has been divided
into a number of smaller areas.
Within these areas residents
pay a subscription for unlimited
parking while non-residents
have to pay according to time.
As the areas involved are quite
small, even relatively small trips
within the central city area (and
therefore not only from outside
the city) are subject to payment,
the amount of which depends
on parking duration. The only
trips that require no payment
are those which cross the centre,
but these have significantly
decreased in number in any case
due to reorganised traffic circulation
resulting from application of
the last Urban Traffic Plan.
The subscription paid by residents
is lower for the first family
car (€ 50/year) and much higher
for any further cars (€ 300/
year). All other users (including
residents if they park in different
areas from the one they live
in) pay parking fees projected
at € 2/h for the duration of
their stay. There is also a special
rate called “speedy” (€ 0.20 for
20 minutes, not renewable) that
permits short stops at a low
parking tariff to enable people to
run quick errands and to increase
parking availability through high
rotation. Street payments can be
made to traffic wardens and using
conventional ticket machines
(although it is thought that innovations
will be developed during
2009), while subscriptions can
be paid to a contact centre or via
the internet (for renewals only).
After an initial implementation
phase during which the performance
of the overall system has
been evaluated, and given the
excellent results recorded, the
city authorities have decided to
broaden the scheme beyond the
inner city area to incorporate the
wider city centre and the first
semi-central belt. Reactions to
the application of the BLUAREA
scheme have been very positive
in terms of reduced access to the
centre (-5.1%), the availability of
parking spaces (+6.5% for cars
and +21.7% for motorbikes) and
improved use of public transport
(+3.0%). After initial disagreement
even citizens are now
reacting quite positively (the
acceptance rate has been evaluated
and, based on positive and
neutral opinions, now equates
to 76.6% of residents). This was
a decisive factor for the decision
by the authorities to widen the
scheme’s application. In fact,
despite the fact that the effects
are not dissimilar to those of
a more “traditional” road pricing
scheme, this scheme has received
much greater acceptance
by citizens.
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