Quality of life improvement, sustainable development and transportation are today main targets in European policies. In large cities, to improve the environmental quality of urban spaces, shifting, as much as possible, from the use of personal vehicles to the use of public transport, improving intermodality, also with non motorised travel modes, interchange points and pedestrian itineraries seem to be the keys to success. The "environmental island", defined using a methodology of integrated design, becomes the occasion for urban upgrading: on one side traffic control, through traffic calming techniques, and enhancement of alternative transport modes, on the other side an intermediate spaces configuration, able to satisfy the users exigences on their whole, material and immaterial, and able to be globally perceived and to induce appropriate behaviours.
Abstract