How to Ensure Safety and Promote the Permanence of School Streets?

In recent years, research has focused on innovative solutions to ensure the safety of road users, with a particular emphasis on vehicular traffic, pedestrian mobility and the habits of vulnerable users. Among these, school streets represent a highly relevant topic, especially for their ability to combine safety, social interaction and play in proximity to schools. This study analyses potential scenarios for the permanent implementation of school streets in the Italian context, evaluating their positive and negative externalities, particularly in terms of traffic management, safety and urban livability. The adopted methodology includes a preliminary literature review aimed at identifying international experiences and classifying key variables that influence the development of progressive solutions for managing vehicular and pedestrian flows. A case study is then presented, focusing on a school street located in the Oltretorrente neighborhood of Parma (Italy). Analysis through GIS (Geographic Information System) tools and multimodal transport simulation models using the software VISSIM have been developed to analyze the morphological, social and functional characteristics of the area, in order to assess its suitability for experimental interventions.The results of the study provide a basic framework of the essential characteristics for the success of future traffic management scenarios aimed at the permanent adoption of school streets. It emerges that the integration of social and modal analyses can promote more conscious actions that effectively balance the needs of safety, accessibility and urban sustainability.