Urban transformations and urban transport policies: The cases of Paris and Milan

Abstract

This article is a reflexion on the transformation of modern cities from the viewpoint of population mobility and related urban transport policies. Initially an analysis is made of the first major transformations of the modem city as a result of the Industrial Revolution, when obliged flows to the city emerged as an integral element of the new economic system. This is followed by a study of the necessity and the will to organize these flows through the implementation of a transport policy based on the adaptation of mechanical means of transport to fit the city's characteristics. Such an adaptation also implies the explicit formulations of the desired model of urban space, first within the urban nucleous, then in the metropolitan area and finally at the level of the entire urban region. Two cities were selected as examples: Paris and Milan, which are similar in some respects and different in others, both in tems of scale and socio-economic context. It was hence possible to make some comparative reflexions, identifying a similar evolution with contrasting results.