Reggio Emilia City of Trails
About this good practice
The "Reggio Emilia City of Trails" is a participatory project promoted by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia to co-design green routes that enhance personal mobility and cycling infrastructure. It involved over 300 actors, including citizens, associations, social centers, parishes, and institutions, who collectively contributed to tracing and building these routes within and between districts. The goal is to create new connections and opportunities for proximity, ensuring that all residents have access to green routes close to home.
These routes pass through urban and peri-urban areas, linking well-known sites of social, cultural, and economic activities, as well as natural, less-known spaces. Besides enhancing mobility in suburban areas, the trails serve as a "gateway" to local cultural and community heritage. They foster social interaction, education, and environmental awareness while improving the landscape and preserving the area's history. Most paths follow existing cycle paths and farm tracks, with the aim of organizing these routes from the perspective of local residents. Citizens Workshops were organised in the neighbourhoods for the identification of the paths and the collections of stories.
The process was developed in collaboration with the neighbourhood association of social promotion, which, on a self-building basis, created new paths where none existed, under the supervision of municipal technicians and with the permission of land owners.
Expert opinion
Resources needed
€ 15,000 Region funding Citizenship Workshops
€ 50,000 for signs installation
€ 14,000 donated by Municipality to association for the creation of new paths
€ 20,000 per year, agreement Municipality - Reggio Emilia section of Italian Alpine Club for hiking activities, supervision and maintenance
Evidence of success
Thanks to the project, 23 walking and cycling routes were designed, totalling 246 km of routes throughout the municipality. The routes were collected in an atlas, available online, containing descriptive cards for each route and places of interest.
Potential for learning or transfer
The practice can be replicated in both central and peripheral neighbourhoods as well as in neighbourhoods of different social backgrounds. This makes it possible to strengthen links with the landscape and the surrounding environment, restoring local identity and increasing outdoor activities through soft mobility. Cities with a focus on sustainability and climate resilience could adopt this model, by integrating green urban spaces with walking/cycling trails for environmental and social benefits.
Community engagement is a key element in the replication, as it allows this practice to foster a sense of identity and belonging, and a deeper knowledge of the local heritage and history, as the trails connect well-known sites and less-known spaces.
The practice is highly scalable and adaptable to different contexts, and the approach is capable of answering to different needs in terms of improving local mobility, strengthening community bonds and participation, and raising air quality.
Further information
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