Despite recent limitations on private vehicle access within a wide restricted zone, Milan, which is at its centre a historic city with rather narrow streets, still suffers from significant motor traffic, and surface public transport is at times slowed down. This is particularly true of the ring road that circles the entire centre and intersects all the main roads to the city, along with their corresponding public transport stops and important hubs.
Two electric trolleybus lines travel the complete ring road: number 90 in a clockwisedirection, and number 91 in an anticlockwise direction. These trolleybuses are often very crowded and busy, and cater in significant part for working-class and immigrant residents, who need to reach different parts of the city to their jobs or other businesses.
Time, as ever, is a precious resource, and a lot of it can be spent waiting for the next bus, which may be very crowded already, or slowed down by traffic. Some parts of the ring road are busier than others. Milan Living Lab is an attempt to improve travel conditions with sustainable solutions by focusing on a critical segment of the 90-91 route.
