The population can't fit on the streets

Post date: Sep 29, 2015 5:17:29 AM

The streets of Venice cover an area of approximately 1.07 km2 (0.41 mi2), which is the biggest physical restriction for its locals and visitors. According to a census by UN, the population of Venice in 2012 was 260,060 (this must mean 60k locals and 200k tourists). This means that if every person was in the streets, each person would have 4 mm2 of available space. In practical terms, this means that the streets of Venice physically cannot fit that many people. Although this scenario is not realistic, in 2007 it was estimated that 50,000 enter Venice each day, which is a big enough flow of people rushing into city streets to create massive congestion both at the entrance points and the interior of the city.

Most visitors are so-called day trippers, meaning they come in during the day and leave at night. If a tourist is to spend an average of 2.4 days in Venice, he or she would want to get the most of it and visit as many attractions as possible. Sightseeing and exploring Venice means walking around, and this is a burden to street mobility in the city.

Some demographics: http://www.venipedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Demographics

UN Census: http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3A240

-RM