Rethinking Urban Mobility Under COVID-19: Milan’s Strade Aperte

As the COVID-19 disease began to spread in cities throughout the world in 2020, local authorities were faced with a host of policy challenges to contain transmission of the little-understood SARS-CoV-2 virus. One important element of policy action in urban settings is the regulation of mobility. When the COVID-19 crisis emerged, cities had to re-think their mobility strategies and develop policies that accommodated movement of people while also limiting viral spread. This chapter looks at the experience of Milan and their effort to implement a slow streets scheme in the city by situating the analysis in a theoretical framework that integrates the built environment, the natural environment, and the social system.