No progress in 20 years:a report demolishes "sustainable mobility" in Italy

While lifestyle and consumption styles are rapidly evolving as a result of social progress, the mobility behavior of Italian citizens remains anchored to a perspective of continuity.This is the scenario that emerges from the study of the 20th Report of the Higher Institute of Training and Research for Transport (ISFORT) on the mobility of Italians - promoted by Cnel and the Ministry of Transport -, which records how the mobility of Italians is structured " around the resistance force of habits and the entrenchment of mechanisms of choice", often bypassing "opportunities, services, innovations potentially capable of proposing alternative solutions, especially in the choice of means of transport".A resistance which, according to ISFORT, constitutes the basis "of the many aporias that they block the evolution of the system towards more balanced and sustainable demand models".The report examined in particular the period between 2000 and 2022, comparing the statistics from the beginning of the millennium with the more current ones.Presenting many surprises.

In particular, the data collected by ISFORT goes to refute the cliché according to which the processes of growing social and economic articulation, driven by the "greater density of daily life" and the "multiplication of offers for leisure, for work, for consumption in general", have generated an expansion of citizens' demand for mobility in the new millennium.In fact, based on the data emerging from the ISFORT "Audimob" Observatory, both the number of trips made by the 14-85 year old population on the average weekday and the number of passengers*km, i.e. the number of journeys, are declining.In the first case, we are talking about an average of 100 million trips in the last 15 years (decreased by a quarter compared to the data of the first years of the new millennium);in the second case the number of passengers*km currently stands at around a flow of 1-1.2 billion/day (with a reduction of just over 10% compared to the beginning of the millennium).In this regard, the report highlights how the demographic factor and, specifically, the aging of the population, may have played a significant role in influencing the trend of gradual reduction in travel.

The study he confirms the perception that, after almost three years since the outbreak of the pandemic, the process of "return to normality" with regards to the relationship between citizens and mobility has effectively concluded.The data in the report confirm that mobility still represents a phenomenon "eminently local, short-range”.In fact, the majority of traffic flows do not unfold on long networks - high-speed trains, planes, large ships, trucks covering long distances on the motorway - but "on limited dimensional scales, to cover short or even very short distances, with relatively limited time commitments".For proof, just look at the data relating to the journeys, which in 75-80% of cases run out. within 10 km.However, it is necessary to distinguish between proximity (i.e. mobility up to 2 km), which in 2022 will absorb around 30% of demand, and short range (mobility from 2 to 10 km), with over 45% of demand.Medium and long distance journeys - those covering more than 50 km -, however, have always had a residual value, settling at around 2.5-3% (with a peak of 3.4% recorded in 2013).

Between 2000 and 2022, the unrivaled rulers dominated private motorized vehicles, which absorb on average 70% of trips and 80% of passengers*km, with percentages that consolidate from year to year.The share of demand absorbed by walking, cycling and micromobility today stands at just over 20%, recording a few points less than at the beginning of the millennium, with a peak reached in the year of the outbreak of the pandemic.Public transport is also a flop, with 10% of trips and 20% of passengers*km.The report highlights, in no uncertain terms, the “de facto” failure of sustainable mobility policies of the last 20 years, recording how the Sustainable Mobility Rate - i.e. the percentage of journeys on foot, bicycle, micromobility and public transport - reduced from 2000 to 2015, then growing up to the peak of 38.2% in 2020, but deflating again after emerging from the pandemic period.There hasn't even been such a cross-section eroded from the surge, compared to the pre-pandemic phase, in the practice of smart working, which in 2022 concerns 25.8% of the population (but with a continuous percentage falling from 24.6% to 6.7%).Although workers in SW are more likely to carry out, compared to others, travel on foot, by bike and by public transport, the differences in the use of means are not however significant.

[Stefano Baudino]