As the year comes to an end, it is the perfect time to pause, reflect, and look at our streets with new eyes. Across Europe, small but meaningful transformations are showing how urban spaces can evolve to become more human, inclusive, and sustainable.
In Rome, the first lot of the GRAB – Grande Raccordo delle Bici (Rome’s Great Bicycle Ring) has been inaugurated, transforming a 400-meter stretch along Via di San Gregorio into a safer and more welcoming space for pedestrians and cyclists. This intervention shows how streets can move beyond their traditional role as traffic corridors and become real places of everyday life.
Key highlights include:
- Linear green promenade: the former sidewalk has been transformed into a verdant walkway, connecting pedestrians and cyclists to the historic Colosseum and Palatine.
- Enhanced accessibility and comfort: 9 meters of expanded pedestrian and cycling space, new pavements in light architectural concrete to reduce heat islands.
- Sustainable urban design: over 2,000 m² of permeable soil restored and new green areas providing better livability for citizens and tourists.
This is what tactical urbanism looks like: not grand gestures, but small, concrete actions that generate lasting cultural change. Wider sidewalks, safe cycling paths, and shared spaces become symbols of a city that puts people first.
For the Streets for Citizens project, these experiences are more than urban interventions — they are good practices to collect, share, and reimagine. As we look towards the new year, they help shape a vision aligned with the spirit of the New European Bauhaus: cities that are beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive.
The future of our streets is not built only through plans and policies, but through the way we choose to live them, together.
IMAGE source: Roma Capitale
