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THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN THE LAND ORGANIZATION OF THE INNER REGIONS OF

F. PINNA Department of Land Engineering - University of Cagliari Engineer, D.I.T.- sez.Trasporti, Facoltà di Ingegneria, P.zza D’Armi 09123 Cagliari, , +39.070.6755256

M. CONI Department of Land Engineering - University of Cagliari Engineer, D.I.T.- sez.Trasporti, Facoltà di Ingegneria, P.zza D’Armi 09123 Cagliari, Italy, +39.070.6755254

F. ANNUNZIATA Department of Land Engineering - University of Cagliari Extraordinary Professor, D.I.T.- sez.Trasporti, Facoltà di Ingegneria, P.zza D’Armi 09123 Cagliari, Italy, +39.070.6755256, fax. +39.070.6755261, E-mail [email protected]

The article analyses the state of the transport system in On a regional basis the strong areas would accomplish the Sardinia, with particular reference to inland areas. After task of a firm, efficient link with the mainland, while the illustrating the specificities of these areas, their orography lesser centres would have the function of spreading the urban and morphology as determinants of productive activity, and impact throughout the territory. the relationship between population and settlement that A further strategy is that of maximising the integration determines communication axes, the settlement tendencies among infrastructural systems, productive structures, and the new economic and territorial arrangement are pointed agricultural areas, services and residential centres, with the out. Finally a proposal is made about what the development perspective of promoting the tourist and environmental of the transport system of these marginal areas, and therefore vocation of Sardinia. of future scenarios, should be. Subsequently a few remarks Finally the necessity of a general adjustment of are made on the transport system, on infrastructural communication infrastructures, in terms of design standards, weaknesses, on the limited accessibility of a few inner areas is pointed out, in order to increase both the efficiency and the and on how this negatively affects the development of the safety of the system, to integrate the different modalities of local economy. transport, and to strengthen the railway links by reconverting Furthermore, we point out the necessity of locating urban end lines into local community transport strong poles with the function of supplying services and infrastructures. localise productive activity, in order to promote an organic structured aggregation of lesser settlements located in weak demand basins. This must coincide with the improvement in land accessibility, with vast intervention on the inner road system, and with the creation of a system of strong links with the main urban settlements of the island and with the regional and national transport network.

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1. THE SPECIFICITY OF THE INNER REGIONS OF SARDINIA

1.1. OROGRAPHY AND MORPHOLOGY AS DETERMINANTS OF PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITY

The South of Italy is at a disadvantage with respect to the rest of the country because of the fact that its hilly territory, that is often limited further by its morphology, is clearly predominant. This aspect at least partly explains the traditional importance of sheep rearing in the area.Sardinia has the same amount of flat land as the South, but since just above two thirds of its area is on hilly altitude and a very small amount on mountain altitude, its altitude distribution is grievously unbalanced. Even more unbalanced in favour of high altitudes are its inner areas, spaces that have historically become deeply affected by the forms and rhythms of transhumant sheep rearing in their society, their economy as well as their landscape. It is particularly significant to note in this connection that 35% of the is made up of mountainous territory, an area that also represents about 85% of the whole mountain territory of Sardinia; on the other hand the remaining 65% of hilly territory only represents about 27% of the hilly territory of the island.Therefore the major expression of Sardinian mountainous territory, in other words the steepest, the most massive and the most extended, are in the inner areas. Far from being monotonous, in their great variety of landscape forms, these areas are made even more complex by a morphology that, in spite of the moderate altitude, has formed extremely rough and uneven hills, resembling mountains rather, and mountains that at a relatively high altitude with their soft rolling forms recall the hilly environment. Most of the territory of the province, moreover, has a step configuration, or a ditch configuration, and even at low altitudes it is characterised by ridges, while rolling or even flat table land is scarce (a very significant characteristic in respect to the economy of ordinary road building).

1.2. RELATIONS BETWEEN POPULATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS AS DETERMINANTS OF COMMUNICATION.

In brief, from the point of view of cultural characteristics, this is a particular population that due to the viscosity exerted by transhumant sheep rearing, lives and preserves an environment that may be called specialised and exploited especially in function of the traditional characteristics of sheep rearing, though it is gradually becoming relatively less important.Therefore to think of a territory that tends to modernization appears to be somewhat in contrast with the main traditional economic activity that still guides its organization. On the other hand to conceive innovative connotations to sheep rearing implies the vision of a differently structured and organized territory, or rather of an entirely different territory.In the interior, most of the population closely or directly involved in sheep rearing is distributed in large villages located between the high hills and the mountain. The essential characters of these villages are aimed to:

1) guarantee social life in the village; social life meaning mutual aid, solidarity, mutual defence and cultural defence, especially among the weakest members of society, i.e. women, the elderly and the children, who are left alone by the men, the shepherds, who during the winter months of transhumance move their sheep to lowland pastures;

2) provide the communal territory - which on average is quite large due to the strong extensive character of sheep rearing with respect to land - with protection and order of a roughly barycentric pattern.

The combination of the meanings of the two fundamental characteristics of the settlement explains the following: 3

a) major roads are essentially intended to ensure horizontal relations among the villages, that is to promote exchange between sheep rearing centres, that are different only in respect of their size - relations that are carried out also on long distances - and interprovince relations; b) major roads are essentially long yarns without weft; in other words, either because fundamentally useless or due to their morpho-altimetry, they are totally lacking in meshes and scarcely provided with nodes; c) minor roads, at the local level, on the other hand, are essentially oriented towards guaranteeing vertical (or ecological) relations; that is to further the pasture land economy with its rhythms marked by the presence of labour, the grazing of animals, the milking of ewes; d) in brief, neither the seat of community life (that is fully pre-urban), nor that of the main economic activity, are organized in “networks”, according to criteria of decentration and specialisation of production and services; in fact these criteria are not allowed by the scanty articulation of the economic structure and related functions, that favours the paradoxical polarisation of only small episodes.

1.3. THE DELOCALISATION-RELOCALISATION TENDENCIES OF THE POPULATION. THE TENDENCY TOWARDS A NEW MODEL OF SETTLEMENT AND THE NEW ECONOMIC-TERRITORIAL PATTERNS

In the past thirty-odd years, the most important in the evolution of Sardinia's economy, the population of the inner areas was characterised by the combined meaning of four phenomena, that may be considered converging in the expression of a general, relative, weakening of the economic-productive structure of the area. The four phenomena are:

1) an absolute decrease in the general population; this is due to emigration to the rest of the island and outside it as a result of the change in age distribution;

2) a decrease in the total population's share in the Sardinian population;

3) in the balance between areas characterised by a population decrease and those characterised by an increase, the former have been extended to include the communes in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital town;

4) progressive shifting of the population from higher to lower altitudes, except for the 301-600 metre altitude range.

The articulation of the above phenomena allows to propose a few strategic, though problematic, concepts of the evolution of the inner regions. First of all the population drop, that persists up to the past few years, could depend on a continuous general loss of resources. Though rather abstract because related to the indefinite nature of the causes of the phenomenon, the hypothesis could be given greater concreteness by observing that in fact the decrease or increase areas themselves qualify the nature of the crisis by their very own distribution. The former are the inner areas of the high hills and mountains, while the latter are essentially the coastal areas and those immediately gravitating around the industrial poles and capital towns. Considering the cases of consolidated increase and others where the population has only increased more recently, in the past few years the coastal areas affected by a tourist economy and the main, urban, functionally complex areas seem to have reinforced their population.

1.4. THE ECONOMIC SCENARIOS COMPARED TO THE LAND SCENARIOS. WHAT DEVELOPMENT SHOULD BE IMPRESSED ON THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM OF THE INNER AREAS.

The evolution of the size and structure of the active population helps to relieve the above remarks of a good percentage of uncertainty and confirms the pessimistic hypotheses. As a matter of fact, considering the province of Nuoro as an example, in the 1961-1991 thirty-year period, after a few fluctuations the active population returned to 4

the “starting point”: from 89,600 in 1961 to 90,000 in 1991. This allows to remark that the increase in the active population from 31.7% to 33.0% of the resident population is only apparent, since it is essentially due to a decrease in the resident population. On the other hand the structure of the active population does not leave much room for optimism. Undoubtedly, the agricultural sector (that is practically based almost exclusively on sheep rearing) has witnessed a significant exodus in the past thirty years. As such, this could be interpreted positively, but compared to the evolution of the remaining part of the population structure, the impression one gets is far from being positive. A first pessimistic impression comes from the evolution of the active population in industry in the strict sense (that is excluding the building sector), where the situation was substantially static in the 1961-1991 thirty-year period. Therefore it would not be correct to state that industry in the strict sense managed to incorporate the active population abandoning the primary sector, in a physiological process of intersectorial shifting. This impression is further strengthened when one considers the building sector, where a marked decrease was seen in the thirty-year period. As regards the services sector, that more than doubled its active population in the considered period, it should be mentioned that this evolution in numbers is to be put back into perspective by the following two circumstances: on the one hand it is easily understood that the cramped development in the industrial sector negatively affected the qualitative-structural development in the services, and on the other from a more articulated analysis of the services in the internal areas it emerges that the sector developed in its general size, but preserved strong traditional structures.

Other considerations lead to pessimism: for example the ratio between employees and local units. In the building sector (truly this sector has special characteristics, by which it cannot be grouped with the manufacturing sector; but it is certain that expansion in this sector means growth if not development), as a matter of fact in this sector one observes that the local units suggest reversion to the size of the small handicraft enterprise. When one translates these economic characters into land scenarios, one obtains an image of a land that is slowly but steadily reassessing some areas, reinforcing some roles and exploring new functions. A continuum of considerable land rehabilitation is given by the coastal communes, of which a mere indication can be obtained from the uninterrupted growth of the resident population in the past 20-25 years, but can be efficiently represented in terms of land innovation, if a denser human presence is associated with growing dynamism in tourist functions and with the creation of tourist settlements. However tourism cannot conquer a vaster (even territorial) role, in other words it cannot propose itself as a more contaminating activity and therefore with poor “relief climbing” and interior penetration effects. A case in point is the well known layout and roadbed limits of the S.S. 125 “Orientale Sarda” main road together with the essential nature and the (layout and roadbed) difficulties in creating a high-speed link between the coastline and the inner areas. The study, aimed at a greater frequency of transversal communication roads, should be addressed at the tourist “relief climbing” function rather than at the simple justification of higher layout speeds. The only district in which the thin coastal strip is linked with the inland is the area under the direct control of the capital towns. Here, the communication lines between the interior and the coast become relatively denser. Obviously greater care should be taken both in studying and building the area. It should also be mentioned that in these areas, the S.S. 131 DCN main road, that connects the Nuoro district with the S.S. 131 and the S.S. 125 main roads, joins both north-south communication, and transversal communication with Marghine (by the S.S. 131) and Planargia. To think that transversal communication in Sardinia could be left for such a long span to a road of the building and maintenance level of the S.S. 129 main road seems incompatible with seriously intending to rationalise the road network. There is no doubt, moreover, that the most serious land issue of the inner regions, obviously due to economic-productive and economic-social reasons, is that of the enormous, consolidated unpopulated area ranging from the north and north- eastern parts of the to the eastern part of the province of .

No other part of Sardinia is demographically impoverished over so vast and continuous an area, thus presenting a great complex problem. A study on the role of the area of the S.S. 128 “Centrale Sarda” and on the possible role of the evolution of the Oristano-S.S. 128 and S.S. 128-Arbatax relationships could lead to a number of founded considerations, and is therefore highly commendable.

As regards the mountain problem, that is the fact that it is more or less accessible through the ordinary road system, it will be necessary, essentially, to look into the fact that, rather than high speed roads on a local basis, mountain tourism really needs a set of alternative links with the regional network, that represents the primary source of traffic of both winter and summer stations, considering their relations with the largest cities on the island.

2. A FEW CONSIDERATIONS ON THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM 5

2.1. INTRODUCTION

2.1.1. It emerges ever more clearly that among the phenomena that characterise our times, the mobility of people and goods appears to be the expression of an inalienable right of unrenounceable value: it is an achievement in the name of freedom. At the same time, mobility has become so exasperated that it has given rise to concerned analyses and urgent meditation in both community and individual spheres . These are prevalently the most visible aspects of mobility, those related to automobile traffic that dominates the news generally with its negative effects: road congestion especially in cities, the impact on the pre-existing natural environment, and the multiplication of tragic road accidents. To understand the phenomenon of mobility means that it is no longer possible simply to observe circulation as it appears exteriorly; we need to grasp the diverse and multiple causes of mobility, both economic and existential.

It is to these aspects that we need to direct our attention in an attempt to learn what factors are to be acted on in order to bring circulation back to proportions fitting the needs of the users, the capabilities of the available infrustructural systems, and the correct use of resource saving technologies.

2.1.2. Italy has a road network infrastructure of about 300,000 km with a territorial density of about 1km per sq km, which is less than the European average, though it ha a higher vehicle density, about 80 vehicles per km, compared to the 60 vehicles per km of Great Britain, the 30 vehicles per km of France and the 28 vehicles per km of the USA. An immediate consideration that emerges from a reading of these few data, that do not indicate a significant inversion in tendency, is that our country needs a different distribution of passenger and goods transport without necessarily having to develop, rather than adapt, the Italian road network in order to develop road transport.

The fundamental objective of the General Transportation Plan is a general re-establishment of the transportation system. These policies, however, need to be oriented towards amending other forms of transport, the shortcomings of which have contributed to the success of road transport. Another fact that characterises the situation of road transport in Italy is that at least 50% of the ordinary roads shows clear signs of a need to be adapted to conform to modern design criteria, and that more dangerous accidents have been found to happen on ordinary roads. Fifty percent of the roads defined “mediocre” are in the South and islands, that account, nevertheless, for only a third of the total road network. Resources totalling only 2‰ of the asset value have been allotted for maintenance: in conclusion protection of the present state of the asset is a priority.

2.1.3. It should be pointed out that expansion of the infrastructural communication network, and particularly of the road network in Sardinia has not responded to the different territorial needs in an optimal manner, since works have always been carried out in response to sectorial needs and demands, rather than as a consequence of general land plans and therefore of a general programming of works.

This leads to the absolute necessity of rationalising the system of transport infrastructures that should be adapted to the socio-economic reality of the territory and its development directrices, while respecting, safeguarding and valorising particular historical-environmental situations as well as agreeing with complex economic planning. General Road Plans and Provincial Transportation Plans have been prepared by the Provincial Administrations of Sardinia. These plans contain a preliminary knowledge of the general characteristics of the land, of populations, of economic and service activities, of the transport system and in particular of the road network. Such specific attention derives from the consideration that, due the above characteristics and shortcomings, in a society characterised by ever- increasing mobility, the road network is one of the weak links in the productive chain of the island, and has a negative impact on the competitiveness of local enterprise and on the social texture of the territory.

The Provincial Plans analyse the studies, programmes, projects and works of all public and private Bodies, Administrations, Organisms operating in the transportation sector for each province and neighbouring regions. In relation to existing situations, programmes, choices, objectives and to the general lines of the above planning tools, proposals relating to the following have been prepared:

a) works of adaptation and restructuring of the transportation system;

b) works for the creation of new communication infrastructures and/or replacement of existing infrastructures. 6

The prevailing objective in planning the transport system, and in particular the road network, is that of reducing the economic cost of transport, and of improving the serviceability and safety of the road network so as to increase land accessibility.

2.2. LAND ACCESSIBILITY

In its elementary meaning, the term accessibility, intended as “facility of access” to a certain place, is a characteristic of the opportunities of transport serving that place, and does not take into account the presence in the neighbourhood of residences, services or work places that make it convenient to facilitate access in order to satisfy a concrete trip demand.

A different interpretation of accessibility is not necessary in the traditional procedure for the layout of the transport system. According to this procedure, the sizing and choice of transport alternatives follow the analysis and forecast of the demand for mobility, so that after adequate consideration of both demand and supply, the users who wish to go there can be guaranteed accessibility to the different centres. In this way the fact that the demand is either impossible or difficult to quantify, prevents a reasoned choice of works on the transport system, and imposes to proceed following a general logic (of guaranteeing communication among all centres, functionally distinguishing ways of communication, adjusting the characteristics of the infrastructures along main itineraries, and so on) and/or substituting for the lack of information on mobility with other data (on the population, the localisation of services, work places, etc). A case where the traditional planning procedure does not work is in the preparation of plans for developing areas or areas of a low population density, even if partially characterised by the presence of medium-large urban concentrations. In fact in such a case, owing also to insufficiently defined scenarios of socio-economic development, the future demand for transport is not easily foreseen; for this reason sizing a communication system may be an extremely difficult task. On the other hand, the demand could be, even partially, below the minimum thresholds for elementary structures (roads and/or collective transport automobile services). It is therefore not the entity of the demand, that may be binding for choices, but more articulated considerations related to the level of the quality of life that one intends to guarantee within budget limits, that constrain both investments in transportation and the localisation and sizing of residences, work places and services. An essential component of a good quality of life is the availability of job opportunities, higher level services, and the possibility of meeting people. In developing areas, or in areas of a low settlement density, though partially characterised by the presence of medium-large urban concentrations, this kind of activity cannot be concentrated in a few “poles”, unless they are to be oversized with respect to the needs of the resident population, obviously suffering the resulting diseconomies. In order to make these “poles” completely available to the general population, it is important to make them accessible, that is to make the trip to reach them cheap, fast safe and comfortable. In other words it is important to improve their accessibility. Accessibility and quality of life thus make up an inseparable couple in low population density areas: accessibility may become a valid support in the definition of priorities of intervention on the transport system.

2.3. THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM: OUTLINE OF ANALYSES, OBJECTIVES OF PLANNING.

2.3.1. - The analysis of the transport system in Sardinia must be based on the consideration that its territory is characterised by a marked organisation of “poles” of productive activity and services; this creates phenomena of transport even on a long distance, figure n°1 and n°2. The indications that could be reached, therefore, regard communication infrastructures not strictly referred to provincial territories of competence. In areas of a low settlement density, the availability of jobs, of social and cultural exchange of a higher level, and of access to services on a territorial scale, is almost always concentrated in a few “poles”. On the one hand this situation of unbalance is the main reason for trips towards “strong” areas, and on the other it is difficult to change except at the price of oversizing some of the services, thus supporting diseconomies. It is therefore evident that the possibility of enjoyment of economic and socio-cultural occasions, that tend to localise in precise areas, occurs increasingly through the facility of access to those areas. It seems convenient to point out, on the contrary, that the presence of an adequate system of transport causes structural conditions for the creation of a more homogeneous territorial distribution of opportunities of occupation and service facilities. The main objective in the planning of the various territorial systems is to design an organic transport system capable of creating conditions of accessibility in function of improving the economic conditions and the general living conditions of its inhabitants.

2.3.2. - The found data and information lead to the following considerations.The general regional territory identifies its prevalent gravitation centres in the four provincial administrative centres and in other centres, such as Carbonia, 7

Iglesias, Macomer and Olbia. We therefore need to determine whether the same territorial organization is to be confirmed in the future or whether, on the other hand, without prejudice to the functions localised in these centres, a role could realistically be found in the provincial and regional territory, for other centres with a supracommunal and/or district gravitational effect in relation to education, health and other services of an administrative nature. The basic problem is that of understanding the correspondence between the present road network and the demand generated by present and future forms of settlement, by changes in productive organisation, by the necessity of guaranteeing an adequate road support to tourism, for example, and so on. The result is that intervention on the road network is not neutral with respect to the structure of the phenomena it meets and from which it receives justification and meaning.

The dislocation of settlements (human, productive and services), mobility, attractivity, substantially the general function of an area, is strongly conditioned by the type of internal and external road structures supporting it. It is therefore necessary to start from an analysis of the present situation (the existing equilibrium between transport demand and supply), and later pass on to an analysis of the possible scenarios: what future equilibrium, in relation both to the independent expansion of social and economic phenomena correlated to the road network and to the share of induced economic benefit generated by a different communication structure. To this purpose the 1986/96 ten-year Regional Transportation Plan hypothesizes that processes of population concentration, abandonment of peripheral areas of the interior and development of tourist activities will extend to the whole of the next decade: Sardinia is still in the early phases of industrialisation, where according to a behaviour model observed in other regions, economic development accompanies processes of territorial concentration. On the whole, it may be stated that an economic development characterised by the same trend as in the past and dragged by the development of already formed “strong” areas is forecast.

2.3.3. - The demand for land accessibility resulting from an analysis of the present land layout, under the social economic profile is expressed on the one hand by the requests of the people and on the other by the needs of the productive world. Due consideration is to be given to demographic evolution, the request of access to primary and specialised services, the opportunity of exploitation and of development of economic resources on the one hand, but also to the protection of areas of remarkable environmental and landscape value on the other. These different requirements express the general need for requalification and re-equilibrium in the utilisation of the resources of a territory where a few “strong” areas tend to affect the development of surrounding areas, and therefore where the opposition between “poles of development” and wide layers of decidedly emarginated territory prevails. The strategic objective proposed in planning a transport system is one of land re-equilibrium, that recognises the high risk level deriving from the abandonment and marginalisation of large portions of territory, and leads to consider communication decisions within a programme that should tend to rationalise and at the same time consolidate the “strong” axes and the “poles”, but that should also contribute to reconstruct and reinforce the deserted areas.

Of course one cannot think that simple intervention on the road system may handle and solve re-equilibrium problems; problems are combined to adequate land policies, both for the localisation of civil services, services to enterprise and production, and for the environment and town planning in general. A set of capillary works on the internal road network and a strong connection system with the main urban settlements may play a fundamental role in the reutilisation of these territories and their recovery towards economic development based on the valorisation of natural, cultural, handicraft and agricultural resources. The solution of this problem therefore must also pass through the following:

• the removal of the serious difficulties experienced by these areas in the utilisation of the main social and economic services concentrated in a small number of “poles”;

• the creation, through closer links among service centres, of efficient communication channels capable of determining a road structure that should work as a frame of reference for the services of minor settlements as an alternative to the Provinces;

• the creation of a net of tourist routes involving both the greater centres and the surrounding areas, in order to support the noteworthy local environmental and cultural resources. 8

Another important issue is accessibility to the main tourist areas. The reconstruction and strengthening of a well- knit, jointed road network could represent the fundamental conditions to promote coast-mountain exchange and at the same time complete the typical resources of the inner areas with those localised on the coast. This strengthening must be conceived as a set of infrastructures capable of leaving unaltered the natural and cultural environment, that in itself represents the main utilisable economic resource in these areas.

2.4. THE CONDITIONS OF LAND ACCESSIBILITY

2.4.1. - The road network analyses available have only used existing data from the Administration, Land Bodies and Agencies competent in transport systems, and/or data collected in preparing the Regional Transportation Plan. The main reason for carrying out these analyses was not only that of having specific information on structural characteristics, maintenance conditions, and serviceability levels of all roads, but also to identify those regions, within the considered system, with the greatest road deficiencies.

On the whole it can be stated that the analyses showed that communication opportunities, land accessibility and therefore also the quality of life, are compromised not only by the lack of appropriate infrastructures, but also by the geometric and layout characteristics of the road network. Infrastructural support appears totally inadequate to sustain the socio-economic development trends of the different regions of Sardinia.

2.4.2. - Among the found and considered parameters, distance in travelling time has been judged the most representative of the state of the road network, and therefore of the quality of circulation. The commercial speeds on the whole road network as a function of the geometric and layout characteristics and of the entity of traffic flow were measured preliminarily. The distances in travelling time for each provincial territory and for the whole regional territory were measured with respect to the main residential, productive and services settlements and to other centres that may be defined as having a “pole function”, such that they can be assigned land re-equilibrium functions.

The following were the considered centres:

province of Cagliari:Cagliari, Carbonia, Dolianova, Guspini, Iglesias, Muravera, San Gavino, Sanluri, Sant’Andrea Frius, Sant’Antioco, Senorbì, Silius, Villacidro and Villasor;

province of Nuoro: Nuoro, , Isili, Lanusei, Macomer, Siniscola, Sorgono and Tortolì;

province of Oristano: Oristano, /, Ales, , , and Santulussurgiu;

: Sassari, Alghero, Olbia, Ozieri, Portotorres and Tempio.

As residential, productive and services settlements and external transport nodes at the regional level the following were considered: Cagliari, Iglesias, Macomer, Nuoro, Olbia (for Olbia and Golfo Aranci), Oristano, Sassari (for Alghero, Portotorres and Sassari) and Tortolì. The analysis showed the deficiencies of the road network in the different regions of the provincial and regional territory, figure n°3 and n°4. Accessibility conditions depend on the quality of the geometric and layout characteristics, and therefore on the serviceability levels, of the road networks of the different regions. Particularly deficient were the road networks serving the Flumini region (between Iglesias and Guspini) and the Sarrabus-Gerrei region in the province of Cagliari; the Barbagia d'Ogliastra and the Barbagia del Sarcidano regions in the province of Nuoro; in the regions in the province of Oristano with Ales, Cuglieri, Samugheo and Santulussurgiu as “poles” of reference; and in Anglona, Goceano and mountain Gallura in the province of Sassari. On the other hand, land accessibility is different and better in regions served by “type A - particular destination” roads such as the S.S. 131 - 131 DCN main roads, or roads serving the Industrial Development Areas and Industrialisation Nuclei.

3. PROPOSAL OF A METHOD OF INTERVENTION 9

The analyses carried out on the transport system in Sardinia have shown that, according to technical characteristics, internal and external relations impose a general adjustment of the communication infrastructures, especially through an improvement of the layout characteristics.

3.1. - Historically, the study of the growth dynamics of many economic systems has shown that investments in the transportation sector often are a decisive factor in the formation of capital. In developing regions, nevertheless, the economic growth rate remains low notwithstanding the large investments in the transportation sector. This has been observed in many cases even in Italy, in the south and islands, in spite of the fact that the works had been guided, at least on paper. The conclusion is that investment in transport represents a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for the development of a certain geographic area. As is well known, the critical moment in getting an economy of a region off the ground is represented by the transition from the subsistence phase, in which all exchange occurs within a very narrow scope, to the phase in which an agricultural and/or mining and/or even industrial surplus is produced. For such a transition to take place in the right way, we need important structural transformations in which the creation, or change, of a transport network must be coordinated with investments aimed at stimulating growth.

A consequence of this approach is that certain traditional procedures aimed at assessing the appropriateness of investment projects, for example in the road sector, do not respond to the objective of promoting balanced growth. On the contrary, in some applications, they have led to the creation of oversized works, using up resources that could have been invested in more urgent projects from the point of view of development. To this purpose, it should be remembered that one of the characteristics of the territory of developing regions is that of a marked economic dualism, in the sense that vast, thinly populated, poor areas are contrasted with small areas (basically the main cities and their immediate hinterland) characterised by much higher levels of income and development. It is evident that, in these conditions, to base the priority of investments exclusively on the so-called “direct benefits” (benefits deriving from the reduction of operating costs) is risky since it may worsen rather than improve the situation and stress the peculiar disadvantages of large urbanised areas. We therefore need to abandon the purely sectorial vision of the problem of road planning and transport planning in general; this could only be done by introducing what we can call “development benefits” in the analysis. This category of benefits should be determined as the result of global investment, or better, of the entire productive effort, and not as an effect of partial investments, such as roads. From these brief remarks, it emerges that the planning and layout of transport systems must no longer (or better not only) be confronted sectorially, but in the general view of the process of economic development within which the works are carried out. The layout of a road or a railway does not have a separate configuration, but is an integral part of land planning.

3.2 - The basic concept to be stated is that each transport component plays a role corresponding to its own technical and economic peculiarities, and all the components, organised hierarchically, concur to define the territorial layout that is functional to the pre-established socioeconomic layout. Another inspiring concept is that the transport system must be used to control the localisation of activities on the territory, that is the crucial point not only of town-planning and territorial problems, but also of traffic and circulation problems. In order to assess the territorial layout that can be associated with intervention in transport, connectivity is of fundamental importance, at least for the following reasons:

1.The increase in connectivity of the transportation net is the fundamental condition in supporting the formation of a more territorially reticular structure, with a view to a better extension of development;

2.Some of the main impediments and constraints to the extension of development can be referred to variations in connectivity due to an unequal development of transport.

The layout of a transportation system should be founded on the following main options:

• an adequate exploration of the possibilities of requalifying the intercity road communication network with investments aimed at relieving congested areas by offering a better distribution of the values of accessibility and connectivity;

• a check of the hypotheses of improvement of the connection between minor urban systems and “strong” areas, through efficient local transport services in terms of service reliability and intensity. 10

As regards the organisation of urban areas, the following points seem particularly interesting:

a. a detailed study of the possibility of promoting the mobility shift from private to public transport, while checking the attainable thresholds and town-planning implications;

b. an exploration of the possibilities and implications of organisation strategies of the main railway nodes serving regional and metropolitan mobility, both in terms of distribution of accessibility values that could promote evolution towards a net structure of settlement patterns, and in terms of management models.

Finally, in order to function efficiently and in a competitive way, productive sectors require a transport system that should respond to high levels of efficiency, safety and speed. Occasional, spontaneous, partial responses to such needs have not led to a transportation system with modern, technological and organisational characteristics so far, and are very unlikely to do so in the future. This leads to the necessity of programming public intervention in the transportation sector. The main intervention in the sector, relating both to the functioning, reorganisation and renewal of the existing transport supply as well as improving it, should be planned, defined and proposed according to a new way of organising the system of decisions in transport. This should allow intervention and the corresponding expense a) to be consistent at all levels, b) to concern expense needs arising from reliable forecasts of demands of a growing economic system, and c) to be carried out most opportunely according to a scheme of priorities that should avoid unacceptable expense delays or useless anticipations, integrating among different modes, globalizing the expense wasted today and optimising the resources. The choice of priorities must occur therefore on the basis of a uniform method, that should examine not only economic but also social and environmental aspects.

3.3 The ongoing planning activities in the provinces may generate proposals of corrective and/or integrative intervention of the Regional Transportation Plan. These are being generated with special reference to the General Transportation Plan, since it determines the reference framework of objectives and methods of intervention for the programmes of the competent authorities and administrations.

The road networks studied in the Plan, be they state-owned or provincial, are subdivided into the following four territorial and functional levels:

• general communication roads, first level itineraries of regional interest;

• second level itineraries of regional interest;

• first level itineraries of provincial interest;

• second level itineraries of provincial interest.

In this connection, the Regional Transportation Plan defines the following three levels of functional hierarchy in relation to the technical-functional characteristics assigned to each itinerary, with regard to the type of traffic and its composition:

•the basic motorway network;

•the first level regional network or express roads;

•the second level regional network or main roads.

The motorway network is made up only of S.S. 131 - 131 D.C.N., including completion up to Olbia. The first level regional network integrates the general communication road scheme according to Act no. 531/1982, with a set of directrices aimed at promoting the full integration of inner areas with the main directrices of regional traffic. The itineraries making up the scheme have the following characteristics: 11

• they include the general directrices of regional traffic;

• they link the capital cities of provinces;

• they are direct, important, transversal links with respect to the north-south directrices;

• they link ports and airports of regional interest and areas of particular industrial and tourist importance, to the road network;

they include the interprovince directrices of particular interest to the socio-economic development of the Region. While there is a substantial agreement between the functions assigned by the Regional Transportation Plan and those assigned by the provincial plans for the first level itineraries of regional interest, according to the proposal by the Regional Transportation Plan, besides making up the main basin traffic directrices, the second level itineraries of regional interest are intended as connection and/or linking itineraries among first level itineraries, therefore complementing the road network by assigning it also regional territorial functions. First level itineraries of provincial interest mean those itineraries that carry out the following main functions:

• completion of the main provincial road network;

• infrastructurization of regions where the transport supply deficiencies are greatest;

• link among urban, productive and service systems.

Finally, second level itineraries of provincial interest are the rest of the provincial road network and especially those that create itineraries of:

• connection between coastal and internal tourist regions;

• infrastructurization of internal tourist regions.

References

F.Annunziata, L.Cottone, “Rete Viaria e Disagio Territoriale”, Consiglio Regionale della Sardegna, Atti della Commissione Speciale di Indagine sulla Condizione Economica e Sociale della Sardegna Interessata da Particolari Fenomeni di Criminalità e Violenza, Cagliari giugno 1989, pagg. 75-89,.

F.Annunziata, “Riflessione sul Sistema dei Trasporti Interni”, Informazione - periodico mensile dell’Ordine degli Ingegneri della Provincia di Cagliari, anno XI, n°42 giugno/luglio 1989, pagg.3-14.

F.Annunziata, L.Cottone, G.Mura, G.Rocca, I.Urru, “Piano Generale della Viabilità della Provincia di Nuoro. Criteri ed Obiettivi di Pianificazione per una Regione a Bassa Densità Insediattiva”, XXI Congresso Nazionale Stradale AIPCR- Associazione Nazionale Permanente dei Congressi della Strada, Trieste giugno 1990, pagg. I-1/I- 11.

F.Annunziata, “La Rete Viaria della Sardegna: Criteri ed Obiettivi di Pianificazione per Promuovere lo Sviluppo Socio-economico dell’Isola”, Quaderni Bolotanesi -rivista sarda di cultura anno XVII n°17, 1991, pagg. 147-164.

F.Annunziata, “The Planning of Transport Infrastructures in Urban Areas”, OECD/Road Transport Research Programme- Seminar on Future Road Transport System and Infrastructures in Urban Areas, Chiba (Japan) June 1991, pp.39-49. 12

F.Annunziata, F.Pinna, “Aree Urbane e Sistema Infrastrutturale di Trasporto: obiettivi e criteri di progettazione”, Atti della Facoltà di Ingegneria dell’Università degli Studi Cagliari, anno XXIII 1995, pagg.7-50.

Dipartimento di Ingegneria del Territorio-sezione Trasporti, “Osservatorio Provinciale sulla Mobilità e sui Trasporti della Provincia di Nuoro”, Amministrazione Provinciale di Nuoro, ottobre 1995.

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Fig. n°1 Distribution of trips generated by work or study 14

Fig. n°2 Distribution of trips attracted by work or study 15

Fig. n°3 Sardinian road network. Regional level poles. 30’ Isochrones 16

Fig. n°4 Sardinian road network. Regional level poles. 60’ Isochrones