An offer of lacking public transportthe result of inadequate planning of investments in rapid mass transport (subways, trams) e an obsolete bus fleet which makes public transport unattractive and safe. More enormous difficulties in using the funds foreseen by the NRP – about 10 billion euros – for investments in stations, subways and trams and renewal of vehicles. This is the complaint that comes from the latest study of the Politecnico di Milano just presented at the New Mobility Exhibition (NME), open until 14 October in Fieramilano (Rho) for the first edition of a new event dedicated to sustainable collective mobility. Three days to take stock of local public transport with the major vehicle manufacturers and reference associations in the sector. And with the participation of more than 110 companies: vehicles, IT solutions, green fuels, micro-mobility and sharing.
And in this kind of Kolossal of mobility – more than 20 conferences, conceived by a Scientific Technical Committee chaired by the Politecnico di Milanoto take stock of the market, the professions and the innovation that changes the face of our cities – the study of the polytechnic analyzes the possible actions to reactivate the demand for local public transport, in light of the challenging objective of obtaining in the urban environment a modal diversion of at least 10% of traffic from private vehicles to LPT.
“In the past the modal shift targets from the car were not met – explained in his introductory report Pierluigi Coppola of the Politecnico di Milano – and the restrictions put in place to counter the Covid-19 pandemic have penalized public transport due to the fear of contagion on board the vehicles. Smart working has led to a general reduction in the rate of commuter mobility. The result has been a collapse in LPT demand that is struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels, unlike other modes of transport. Starting from a quick overview of what has happened in recent years, what has not worked (criticality), the opportunities for the future are analyzed: the investments made for the decarbonisation and digitization of transport in Italy, and the development of new technologies enabling new TPL services “.
According to the study, the causes of the low levels of LPT use in Italy are structural. And the problems are basically two. The first is linked to a demand for mobility that over the years has increasingly oriented towards the use of the car (in Italy over 90% of urban travel takes place by car), thanks to the growth of cities with widespread urbanization (urban sprawl) which it does not allow the whole territory to be served with adequate levels of LPT service; which implies that for most urban journeys, the car remains the most convenient mode of transport. The second is painful public transport. To the point that it will not be easy to reach the target (+ 10%) that the PNRR has set itself. The opportunities derive from the huge funding provided for the LPT sector from PNRR and technological development that enables solutions to improve the quality of services and offer new, more competitive ones with the car.
What to do? The study of the Polytechnic offers a way out. And it is linked to the fact that there are about 10 billion euros between investments in stations, subways and trams and renewal of vehicles. It is necessary to invest well, in particular, here is the recipe:
1. Rethinking the design criteria of stations as multimodal hubs (nodes of the transport network in which to integrate modes of transport (car and bike sharing, car parks with electricity columns, …) and TPL services (urban, metropolitan, regional, …) but also as a multiservice hub (i.e. urban centralities in which to place services for travelers and residents;) and involving local administrations to transform the spaces outside the station, according to the principles of the Transit Oriented Development TOD (creating opportunities for new activities and spaces for sociability);
2. By transforming the challenge for decarbonization into an opportunity to improve the quality of services through the digitalization of LPT by investing (3 billion euros) in buses (electric and clean fuels, but) also equipped with technologies that enable companies to provide new services for mobility (from a MaaS perspective, mobility-as-a-service).
But that’s not enough. Again according to the study we need to focus strongly on the opportunities offered by technology. Therefore, on self-driving vehicles that will allow the implementation of last mile services and greater accessibility for users not enabled to drive or unable to drive (disabled people and the elderly). And then also on electric aircraft with vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) for passenger transport, which allow you to travel at low altitudes, for shuttle connections between “vertiport” located in the main intermodal hubs.
The conclusions
“The experience of other European realities – explains Pierluigi Coppola – teaches us that improving the offer is not enough it is also necessary to act on the demand through measures to limit / discourage the use of the car (for example limited traffic areas in historic centers, or entrance fees in the most congested and well served areas by LPT). Furthermore, it is necessary to use a systemic approach, evaluating the individual interventions in the broader framework of the mobility system, not forgetting that each context has its specificities and needs (sometimes not expressed) that require suitably designed solutions capable of putting the user, to allow rational and convenient choices both for him and for collective sustainability “.