Buses as Fixtures

image courtesy of il Messaggero

I just viewed a news video about a new project by Rome’s public transit company, ATAC, for “mobile ticket kiosks” and have a few thoughts to share.

The main task of ATAC is to help people get around the city, in order to free up city streets from private automobile traffic which has devastated it for years.  Dedicating electric buses to a fixed function, occupying public space doesn’t further these aims. In the photo above, these buses literally create a wall across the “pedestrian” space of Piazza del Popolo.    In fact, buses should never be fixtures, but rather always on the move fulfilling their principle function of mobility.  A big problem with Rome’s buses is that spend most of their time stopped, in deposit areas or at capolinea, terminal stops, where they serve only to occupy valuable space and create visual pollution. Could it be that since ATAC makes more money from advertising on the sides of buses than from tickets it’s cost effective to just park buses in public areas?

As for the ticketing system, I always thought it worked pretty well.  If you use transit regularly (and any resident of Rome should be practically forced to do so by proper disincentives toward private vehicles) you buy a yearly or at least monthly pass and think no more of it. If you are from out of town you probably arrive by train or plane and one of the first things you do is go to the fixed ATAC kiosk at the station or airport where you pick up a route map and buy a 3-day, 1-week, or other pass. That’s where ATAC’s customer service efforts should go, making sure these fixed kiosks are visible and well-staffed.

If, like me, you generally get around by bicycle or on foot but occasionally use public transit you simply stop by a Tabaccaio or Giornalaio and buy a bunch of single tickets and keep them in your wallet to use when needed. These shops are already there, already providing services, and selling tickets helps attract customers for their other products, a win-win situation.   If tourists don’t know where to get them or how to use them, better information should be made available.   Not new, confusing places to buy tickets, which might be there one day but when you think you’ve learned where to get a ticket you go back only to find it has moved.  That doesn’t make sense at all.

To quote my American architecture students who just reported on their impressions yesterday, public transit in Rome is still confusing, frustrating and slow. Too often the wait for a bus is longer than the time it takes to walk. Schedules are not enforced, buses come sporadically, often two at a time after long delays. The ATAC Mobile system which promises to use gps to track buses in real time, allowing you to verify waiting times, would be great if a. it really worked all the time instead of shutting down at night and b. it provided information about a functioning system (“the next bus will leave in 3 minutes”) and not a dysfunctonal one (“no buses”, which is what I often see when I check, or, right now on the 44 line “Bus terminus (dep. 9:35 AM)” which is great except the time stamp on the message is 9:45!).

Customer care is important, but doesn’t require mobile kiosks and special marketing campaigns.  What about a web site that works to allow feedback– this is currently not working–and a phone number with a link to bi-lingual customer service beyond the recording (the only English-language option at 06.57003 now is for tour bus info.).

ATAC, please concentrate on providing efficient, frequent, cost-effective public transit, and leave the innovative new customer service initiatives to those who know how to do that better.

Taxis as Public Transit

Taxi drivers gather to protest at Circus Maximus, Rome

Taxi drivers in Rome are protesting the threat of “liberalization” which would introduce competition to a sector which has traditionally been highly monopolized in Italy.  It’s complicated because drivers have paid hefty fees for their right to drive cabs;  for them it is a career choice and it would be unfair to open the floodgates to newcomers without finding a solution that protects their investment in both time and money.

That said, wouldn’t it behoove the taxi drivers to better tailor their public image as “public” transportation?  As I write hundreds of cabbies are gathered outside my studio window on Circus Maximus, their cars blocking pedestrians, the litter they left yesterday still strewed across the archaeological park, frequent explosions shaking buildings as they light cherry bombs and worse.  How many times have I had to listen to cab drivers expletives, often apologies for violent right-wing policies, while just trying to get across town?  How many times have I listened to the complaints of tourists who have been swindled by cabbies, everywhere but especially in Rome?  How many times have I watched as taxis ignore traffic regulations, putting tourists and residents alike at risk?  It doesn’t make me want to use taxis except as a last resort.

The best way for taxi drivers to improve their lot would be to increase their ridership, which means increasing customer satisfaction.  Perhaps lowering, not raising, prices might help?  Increasing the number of cabs would too, benefiting all drivers.  If people knew they could count on finding a cab they would use cabs more frequently, which would mean less private cars on the street, faster service, greater customer satisfaction. Better service would increase tips as well, as would weeding out the rotten apples that rip off tourists and tarnish the image of Roman cabbies for everyone. Why is it that cabs in New York are cheaper and so much more ubiquitous, but cabbies make more money?

Cab drivers should also be at the forefront of the activism to reduce private automotive use in Rome, to create and enforce more pedestrian zones,  It’s common sense, not politics.

Blackout

Auguri

 

Rome, Christmas Day, 2011.

Ending the year on an optimistic note.

On a crisp and clear day I look across Rome from the Gianicolo and see a city to love and respect, a city that deserves more from its residents, visitors and (above all) administrators.  Rome’s problems, like those of Italy, Europe, and the planet, must be solved with intelligence and hard work. No alibis, no excuses, no choice.

The photos below, taken in and around Rome during 2011 remind me of what is great about this place.  Roma, Caput Mundi, Citta’ Aperta, Citta’ Eterna, 2012.

 

 

Back to the glorious mess that is Rome

Back in Rome after some months in a smaller city on the coast and even smaller towns in the mountains, and a couple of trips to big European cities Paris and Amsterdam to see how things are done differently (well, better), I’ve spent my first day back getting re-acclimated to Rome, the real city (traversing it and using it in the course of my first day back) and the virtual city (reading various blogs and newsletters by activist groups).

I’m struck by the multitude of complaints, most of them valid but resulting in the classic battle of good vs. perfect.  My barber complains about the homeless sleeping on benches and leaving a mess behind, but cares less about the scooters parked on the sidewalk (including, I presume, his own).  There are blogs ranting about graffiti, blogs complaining about illegal billboards, blogs complaining about potholes and blogs whining about inefficient public transit. Letters to the editor complain of countless real problems but often end up bickering amongst themselves, claiming that their pet peeve is worse. I’m especially interested in the blogging battles between the NO-PUPs and PRO-PUPs (“pup”, pronounced “poop”, has nothing to do with dogs or their droppings but stands for Urban Parking Plans). They are both against the presence of illegally parked cars that plague the streets of Rome, but disagree vehemently on whether putting cars underground will solve the problem or simply act as a magnet for more traffic in the city center (as is documented in scientific studies, but there I go taking sides).   See, I’m guilty of the same prejudice, more irate about the offenses of the privileged who should know better, the multinational scofflaws, than the casual tagger.

But really, we’re all fighting the same battle to make cities better places for people.  So I thought it useful to list the problems facing Rome and try to prioritize them in my own terms with the goal of putting them in perspective.  Here’s what I’ve come up with in the order they come to mind, and then in my order of priority.  Notice I haven’t included problems like corruption, unemployment or the stagnant economy which are not just urban problems, preferring to focus on the tangible problems facing city-dwellers and visitors on a day-to-day basis.  I’ve also listed as separate problems phenomena that are clearly interconnected, such as excess vehicles and danger to people.

What are the problems facing Rome and how do we prioritize them?  Here’s my random list:

• Danger and hostility to people (pedestrians, especially children, elderly, cyclists)
• Noise Pollution (primarily from motor vehicles)
• Air Pollution (primarily from motor vehicles)
• Visual Pollution (including illegal signs, graffiti, litter, cars, tv aerials, a.c. units, illegal building additions and constructions)
• Slow mobility for people: congestion on streets, often caused by illegal parking, illegal occupation of public space by merchants.
• Congestion and poor management of public transit
• Excess private vehicles and shortage of parking
• Poor drainage leading to flooding and surface erosion
• Reduction of green space effecting microclimate
• Bureaucracy, causing solution of problems to require excess mobility

And here’s my attempt at prioritizing them (without the detail so see those above)

1. Danger and hostility to people
2. Congestion and poor management of public transit
3. Air Pollution
4. Reduction of green space effecting microclimate
5. Poor drainage
6. Noise Pollution
7. Excess private vehicles and shortage of parking
8. Slow mobility for people
9. Visual Pollution
10. Bureaucracy

And some rationalization for the order: the first problem is one that affect the health and very survival of people (Italy has one of the highest traffic mortality rates in the world, with a traffic-related death almost every hour on average). The second is integrally tied to the first. Many of the top problems in my list further intensify the negative experience of the citizen on foot, encouraging more private auto use.  I include the problems of illegal merchants, graffiti, etc. as they are clearly unacceptable, but they don’t make it to the top of my list as the most urgent since graffiti rarely kills people the way automobiles do and as a pedestrian I can more easily bypass the illegal gadget seller than I can a double-parked car. But they’re all problems and if someone wants to campaign to fight anything which mars the city, even cigarette butts between cobblestones, more power to them.

Re-Cycle Re-Use Re-Mix

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by the MAXXI to see the exhibit “Re-CYCLE Strategies for architecture, the city and the planet”.  The idea is a timely one, a show dedicated to a re-consideration of the waste our society produces. Most of the projects on display are architectural in nature, ranging from the reuse of buildings (new inserts in abandoned pigsties and farmhouses) and infrastructure (adaptation of a highway tunnel in Trento) to the use of recycled materials.  Ever since the 2006 Biennale and Ricky Burdett’s Endless City project, statistics denouncing urban inequities and catastrophes have been “hot” and this show makes use of them dramatically by painting data on the floor leading the way into the exhibit.  There was bitter irony in some of the statistics.  Sustainable mobility? (I had just been told by the guards that MAXXI has nowhere to lock bicycles) And the wastefulness of cement (MAXXI architect Zaha Hadid’s material of choice)? Even the slick MAXXI bar continues to use and discard disposable cups;  so much for “re-cycling.”

The stated intention of the exhibit is to establish a dialogue between two worlds, that of Architecture where recycling (whether it be materials, buildings, spaces, waste, or what have you) has an environmental objective, and that of Art where re-use (of Duchamp’s urinal or Warhol’s soup cans) carries meaning.  This notion of “middle ground”, neither/nor rather than either/or, is also a sign of our times and I think a healthy one.  Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, whose works are present in the show, writes of architecture being “entrenched between two equally unfertile fronts”, the utopian avante-garde and corporate realism, and his firm BIG “operates in the fertile ground between the two,”  practicing what he calls “utopian pragmatism.”  Landscape “gardener” Gilles Clemente advocates the “third landscape”, a ‘residue’ rich with biological potential between nature the landscape of man.  LO-TEK works in “slash and retool” architecture, a kind of industrial bricolage.  I learned a lot about these and other firms in what was, for me, one of the best parts of the exhibit:  the reading area where monographs and theoretical texts are available for consultation.

The most moving component of the exhibit, not to be missed, is the photographic exhibit by Pieter Hugo entitled “Permanent Error”.  This exposes the resting place of technological waste of the developed world, in places like the eerie polluted wasteland of Agbogbloshie in Ghana. If this is how our planet operates, Hugo says, it represents a kind of “system error” from which we would do well to “reboot”.

The exhibit reminded me of the (far more humble) panels I curated for the Cal Poly Rome Program last year at the Foreign Architects Rome exhibit at the Tempio di Adriano.  The goal of that workshop, co-taught with architect Cinzia Abbate,  was to create a sort of “Village of Alternative Consumerism,”  an urban resource center or a center for material reuse. From the project brief:

Cities produce waste and consume materials and energy, but this is not necessarily “by nature”. A well-functioning city in which inherent synergies and efficiencies are maximized by design can reduce this “waste” to close to zero. Products which today become broken or obsolete are discarded when they could be repaired, reused, regenerated or as a last resort see their component materials recycled. Traditionally such activities have often been marginalized, performed by outcasts in blighted parts of cities. Rome, however, has a tradition of productive workshops in its historical center, now being rapidly forced out of existence by global economics. In an emergent green economy this work will become more appreciated and more central to a mixed use urban ecology.

I’m excited that this approach to design, more about finding solutions to complex, systematic problems using existing resources than creating new forms out of new resources, is finally taking root.

Watering the Garden

On my lunch break today I biked down to the other end of Circus Maximus and joined the folks of Occupy Rome.  I’m not sure if that’s the official name;  I knew of them for the urban gardening experiments (Zappatta Romana and Orti Erranti), Primavera Romana and for the activism to defend Rome’s public water supply, but the association with the global Occupy movement is self-evident.  General Assembly circle, tents, a community set up respectfully of the public space it occupies, re-use and recycling throughout.  This is the kind of prototype for an alternative system that my friend Douglas Rushkoff blogged about recently.

I have extreme respect for these people and want to spread the word.  Visitors to Rome, residents, neighbors, drop by at mealtime and have a plate of pasta (leave a voluntary donation and wash your own dishes).  Bring things that might be useful: water containers, dishes, photovoltaic cells (they have no electricity), furniture, camp stuff.  Find out if there’s a way to volunteer in the garden.

Spread the word that Rome is not all tour buses and pessimistic Italians.

Biking the First Highway

This morning I biked the Via Appia, from the Aurelian Wall out almost as far as the Castelli and then back to Circus Maximus. This was the longest ride I’ve done in a while and my legs are hurting. But what a fantastic experience. Thanks are due to Appio Claudio for making the road in the 4th century BC, for Luigi Canina for preserving it as a park in the 19th century, and to the Parco Regionale dell’Appia Antica for maintaining it today.  I took travel-writer Rick Steves biking out here for his show about Rome many years back and since then have seen interest in the road and its park grow, with good reason. It’s one of Rome’s most impressive green archaeology sites.

Today my goal was the Grande Raccordo Annulare, the ring road that circles the city. The last time I really explored the outer reaches of the road it was still bisected by this high-speed artery but some years back the GRA was buried to allow the ancient road to continue uninterrupted on its course towards Capua, Benevento and then Brindisi.
The light was fantastic and the temperature just right, chilly enough to make the effort of biking fast pay off in warmth. The first big climb after leaving the gates was a detour through the pastures above (literally) the catacombs of San Callisto, where sheep were grazing on the greenest of grass. I stopped for water and then biked on past the Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella (stopping for a coffee at the bar, which also rents bikes by the way), on to where the road gets bumpy with its ancient basalt blocks, past tombs and statuary. Other than a few other cyclists and joggers (maybe one car), it was quiet.

As I biked I reflected on how this great road paved the way (pun intended) for the network of intercity highways that spans continents today. But unlike those toxic arteries, this one is idyllic in its pastoral calm. In truth, the Appian Way was scaled for people (Roman legions) and not machines, and still today anything bigger than a bicycle is out of place on it. The Appian Way allowed occasional movement of individuals or groups across great distances, but was not made for pointless over-mobility between non-place destinations as so many motorways are today. Most trips were still local, on foot, between places well situated in dense city centers.

Reaching the Villa dei Quintilli I know I am near the GRA, my final destination, and I pedal on along what was for me unexplored terrain. And on and on. Can it really be this far? I see airplanes landing and realize I’m near Ciampino airport, which I know is farther out than the GRA.  I check the GPS on my iphone. Yes, indeed, I have biked right over the multilane high-speed road, as unaware of it as most people are of the catacombs beneath the road closer to Rome. So I turn around and backtrack until the GPS tells me I am right above the highway. Now I notice the telltale signs of bulldozed earth and young trees but the road has been rebuilt pretty seamlessly where a few years ago it was severed in two. I wish the engineers had left more visible traces instead of consciously burying the modern infrastructure the way time often buries ancient infrastructure. Nearby the arches of the Acqua Appia aqueduct parade across a field above grazing sheep, a scene which says a lot about the city dweller’s need for water, food and clothing, as the ancient Roman road speaks clearly of our need for interconnection. Perhaps by burying our own roads, waterlines, sewers and other infrastructure we lose the clarity that civilizations once had. When our systems are less legible, so is their impact on our lives and our planet.

With that thought, I head back towards Circus Maximus, which I reach, exhausted, just in time to shop for produce at the weekend Farmers’ Market.  Next time I’m going to make a long day of it and bike all the way to Terracina. (Anyone want to join me, comments are open below?)

  

  

From Circus Maximus to Ciampino, 30 km. round-trip

Car-Free Sunday

Piazza Margana, car-free most days of the week

I like to go for bike rides early Sunday morning, when the city is quiet and relatively traffic free.  Biking makes me feel free and even in the usual chaos of Rome it has a calming effect, compared to waiting for a bus or, worse, searching for a parking spot.

But it conversely makes me angry because it’s hard to bike 100 meters without encountering acts of incivility, usually on the part of motorists. Even when I tell myself, again and again, that fixating on these problems doesn’t solve them, it’s really hard to practice what I preach.

So today I went out with a goal in mind, to see past the problems to the city which persists despite them.  Without really planning it, this turned into a project to photograph the city without cars. This is the opposite of what I often do, photographing the illegal presence of cars in pedestrian space to report or denounce; it turned out to be a bit more difficult.  But on a Sunday morning, with shops and city offices closed, many streets and squares were pleasantly car-free.  I’ve often used stills from neo-realist films in talks to show a Rome which functioned with little automotive traffic, bustling with trams, buses, bikers and pedestrians. And I’ve pointed out how certain “emergencies” such as political demonstrations or last month’s torrential rains create defacto car-free zones. But today I looked at the everyday city for glimpses of the promise of car-free urban space.

As I pedaled through the sleepy early-morning city,  through Trastevere, across Ponte Sisto to Via Giulia, across to Piazza del Orologio and northward to Piazza del Popolo, I kept my eyes peeled for any vista which could be captured devoid of automobiles.  It became a sort of game. Was there a vantage point from which Piazza Fontanella Borghese really was a pedestrian space (as the posted signs indicate)?  Could I frame a view of the Pantheon with no cars (with some creative use of the fountain to mask the souvenir truck)?  I was not going to fall back on photoshop (that’s another project).

Sadly, it would have been much easier to capture views of incivility;  cars parked on sidewalks, in pedestrian zones, blocking wheelchair ramps, etc. etc.  There’s no challenge in uncovering such violations,  so rampant in Rome to have become boring.  Some streets that I had assumed I could photograph, such as Via Margutta or Via Condotti, were cluttered with cars. But Piazza del Popolo lived up to its claim as car-free, as did much of the Villa Borghese park.  Piazza di Spagna and the Trevi Fountain were almost car-free, except the presence of police cars (no comment).  Many squares outside government offices, usually cluttered with illegally parked cars (guess whose), were empty on Sunday morning.
I ended my ride at  Via dei Fori Imperiali, the grand traffic artery which is closed to cars every Sunday from 9:00 am.  The city was starting to wake up which meant engine noise, whizzing cars, angry drivers who slipped onto the Fori Imperiali just before the barricades went up honking as they sped through the pedestrian zone towards the Colosseum.  Roma, you gotta love it.

Back in the studio I assembled my photos.  Given the time of day there are few people in the shots, so the image is a bit post-apocalyptic, but imagine this city with residents and tourists, bikers, children, seniors, all strolling or cycling safely through the quiet streets, breathing clean air. If you can envision it, it can happen.

Policing the Streets on Two Feet or Two Wheels

New "green" police cars in the pedestrian-only zone on the Campidoglio (foto: da RondoneR, 06blog.it)

Yesterday the city purchased 14 new electric police cars as part of its sustainable mobility initiative.  Interesting, and perhaps a step in the right direction.  But from a practical point of view I have to ask if this is the best use of limited city funds.  I haven’t been able to find data on the cost but these things are not cheap.  Perhaps Citroen offered a good deal in exchange for being allowed to use the pedestrian zone outside the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome’s historical center as their auto showroom this week.  The same day the city was shut down by a couple of hours of rain because the drains hadn’t been cleaned out and the streets are constantly clogged with cars and debris, it didn’t seem wise to announce new expenditures on more police cars.  After all, they’ll just be stuck in the traffic with everyone else.

Why not send out foot patrols instead, or at most invest 1/10th of the money in 10 times as many bicycles?  Not only would the police be much more mobile, able to respond more quickly to calls, they would be more prone to deal with the many problems faced by citizens. Instead of driving past the car on the crosswalk, ignoring the citizens trapped behind it, they might actually fine and tow. Instead of risking injury to pedestrians by piloting tons of metal through crowded streets they would move safely among them.

Google the words “bicycle police” followed by any city in the world and you will most likely come up with images of an efficient modern police force using cheap, high-tech, green transportation.  When will these images pop up for Rome?

 

London Police

Paris Police

Barcelona Police

Washington Police

* (A special thanks to the Rome-based blog 06blog.it for reminding me to credit their image above.  I almost always use my own photos but got lazy this time. Also, my apologies to the authors of the little photos above which I quickly pulled off of a variety of websites without thinking to note the source;  if it’s a problem I’ll replace them with ones I can cite)