Urban mobility changes with the pandemic: people move on foot and for short distances. The Isfort report captures how mobility has adapted to the emergency
The proximity criterion is guiding Italians' choices in urban mobility. The health emergency has thus changed our habits, with journeys that are increasingly short and made above all on foot; at the expense, first and foremost, of local public transport, which is suffering the effects of smart working and concerns related to contagion. This picture emerges from the updated 17th "Audimob" Report by Isfort, the Istituto superiore di formazione e ricerca per i trasporti.
What stands out, first of all, is the sharp increase in short-distance journeys, between zero and two kilometres and between two and ten kilometres: in 2019 they stood at 75.1 per cent, while last year they reached 81.3%; in particular, journeys of up to two kilometres are on the rise — in 2019 they accounted for 32.4 per cent of mobility, while the following year the figure climbed to nearly 40 per cent.
Moving over shorter distances inevitably has repercussions on the choice of transport: the car remains in first place, but its share falls from 62.5 per cent to 59 per cent. And it is no coincidence that the great leap forward is in journeys made on foot, which record an increase of 8.1 per cent, rising from 20.8 per cent in 2019 to 28.9 per cent last year. A small increase is also recorded for bicycles and scooters (up 0.5 per cent) and for motorbikes (up 0.2 per cent), while public transport — metro, buses, railways and car sharing — collapses from 10.8 per cent to 5.4 per cent.
With regard to the reduction in demand for local public transport, Isfort identifies a "structural reduction" attributable to smart working and a "very high perception of insecurity from contagion"; in the near future, this could be offset by a growth in leisure-related demand, replacing that connected to the daily commute. As Marco Romani, the Institute's chief executive, pointed out, local public transport is "a variable destined to change the approach to mobility in our country," also with a view to "the objectives set by Agenda 2030. I hope that the figures we will see over the next ten years of the report will reflect not a reversal or a continuation of the negative trend, but an absolute improvement. This requires a great capacity to plan for the future, but also a great sense of responsibility in the face of the unrepeatable quantity of resources currently available."
Resources that, in Isfort's view, should be used to promote sustainable mobility, strengthen support for public transport, reorganise flows and give greater impetus to planning, encouraging the introduction of figures such as mobility managers. The study also reveals citizens' positive assessment of incentives. Eighty per cent agree with incentives for the purchase of new non-polluting cars in exchange for scrapping old ones, and 85 per cent have heard of this measure; incentives for the purchase of new buses are viewed favourably by 81.3 per cent of the sample, but only 48.3 per cent are aware that such policies exist.