Every week Italians spend an average of six hours travelling. 64% of journeys are made in a privately owned car or motorbike. This figure is slightly down on the previous year, while there is a slight increase in the use of public transport and electric cars (both private and rented), which has risen from 11% to 13%.
Journeys on foot, by bicycle or by electric scooter are stable, at 22% of travel time. Travel on public holidays has fallen by around 10%, probably because of reduced financial means.
Turning to sustainable mobility: the highest figures are recorded in Bologna and Milan, with 49% and 48% of journeys respectively made on foot, by bicycle, or by public or shared transport, while 40% and 45% are still made by combustion-engine car or motorbike. The highest percentages for the latter are instead found in Turin (51%), Rome (54%) and Naples (55%).
What, then, are the causes of this precarious mobility?
The Osservatorio Stili di Mobilità points first of all to the lack of alternatives to the private car, also given the distance from essential services such as schools and medical facilities. In other words, there is no idea of a city of proximity.
Then, of course, there is the shortage of public transport: a lack of stops, inconvenient timetables, no sharing services. Last but not least, there are household finances, which make it hard to meet fuel costs and to cover those (long-distance) routes for which there is no alternative to the car.
In economic terms there is even a worrying phenomenon of mobility poverty, which affects 7% of people. These are people who have no public transport nearby and cannot afford a family car.
Italians' opinions.
Around 50% of citizens want to buy a new car. Of these, 47% prefer conventional vehicles, 14% opt for electric cars (in line with the average sales figure in Europe) and 11% for plug-in hybrids, while 29% prefer hybrid cars.
The reasons given by those who choose internal combustion vehicles are lower cost (29%), greater range (28%), fear of not finding fast charging stations (24%) and performance: according to 15% of respondents, conventional cars have more power and acceleration than electric cars.
Those who prefer electric vehicles, on the other hand, are motivated mainly by a reduced environmental impact (32%), a concern felt above all in Bologna and Naples (45% and 41% respectively). Next come:
- lower running costs, 20%;
- cutting-edge, innovative technology, 14%;
- tax incentives and/or purchase subsidies, 13%;
- fear of not being able to drive freely everywhere in conventional cars in future, 12%;
- better performance, 7%.
