Health and Mobility in the Post-pandemic Scenario. An Analysis of the Adaptation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans in Key Contexts of Italy

The combination of concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic and structural problems relating to social injustice, climate change, and public health requires a radical reorganisation of transport structures, urban services, and the built fabric of metropolitan regions. This need is central to the pandemic era’s public debate: more significantly, it is reflected in the stimuli to metropolitan and urban policies aimed at adapting regional and mobility plans in order to realise a model of a smart, inclusive, sustainable, competitive and resilient city. The paper proposes a comparative content analysis to investigate the SUMPs adopted by the Italian metropolitan cities of Milan and Bologna, as well as their modification via the adoption of emergency plans and adaptation strategies for the post-pandemic scenario. The study’s purpose is to deduce a set of transferable guidelines. Based on earlier research, this study selects the Metropolitan City of Cagliari as a case study for implementing the set of guidelines derived from the comparative content analysis. The study significantly contributes to urban studies by investigating the transformation of concepts and criteria that underpin transport and mobility policies in the Italian context.