Tag Archive for 'città'

The mobility styles of Italians

The new Ipsos-Legambiente survey on the mobility styles of Italians has highlighted that we are moving less, but much more on foot and by private car, at the expense of public transportation and cycling. The combination of pandemic, energy crisis and inflation presses on and increases the gaps.

The survey is part of the Clean Cities Campaign, a European network of environmental associations and grassroots movements that aims to radically improve air quality through more sustainable mobility styles, redistribution of urban space in favor of weak users and conversion of transport to electric. Areas of intervention on which, for Legambiente, we need to accelerate the pace with ad hoc interventions and measures: expansion of bicycle lanes, limited traffic zones, and enhancement of mass rapid transit, just to name a few, in order to arrive at a more sustainable mobility system.

Compared to 2019, car use is also increasing in Milan and Florence in percentage terms, but we also move a lot by public transport and even by bicycle. In Turin we move more on foot, while in Naples and Rome we use the car more.

We continue to use the car, even in short stretches and especially outside large population centers. Of the total number of trips, compared to 2019, 28 percent of the sample say they use the car more.

More walking, especially in the city: on total trips, compared to 4-5 years ago, 38% of respondents walk more. In Turin 49% walk more, in Milan and Rome 47-48%, in Florence and Naples 43-44%. Walking trips are also an opportunity to save on fuel or the single bus ticket when the journey is short. With this new trend, the “15-minute city,” the urban redesign that wants to design all essential services-work, stores, health care, education, wellness, culture, shopping and entertainment-in close proximity to the residence, is gaining in relevance. In dense cities it is already, in part, a reality.

The weakest link in mobility is local public transportation, used less by 31% of respondents, compared to 2019. Use increases for only 9%, unchanged for 29-30%, while the remaining 30-31% never use it, because it is too inconvenient or unreachable. Poor frequency of rides and unreliable schedules also discourage.

For short and long distances people use the car, which is on average 12 years old, polluting and with high fuel consumption. The new car is no longer for everyone. The average purchase price has increased by 32 percent in the last decade, from 18,857 euros in 2012 to 24,891 euros in 2021 (Unrae data), and average purchasing power has decreased.

After the lockdown, many Italians are poorer, and the crisis, combined with the chronic shortage of trains and streetcars, is forcing people to move less, even by public transport. People are walking more, but not by ecological choice. Positive signs only in cities that have increased public transportation offerings, promoted season tickets and bike lanes, such as Milan and Florence.

In Milan and Florence, bicycle use has increased in 21 percent. Confirming that where there are policies that direct the new mobility, positive changes are achieved. Italians are well willing to leave their cars at home in favor of scooters or bicycles, if there were safer streets and the maximum speed in the center was limited to 20-30 km per hour; and in favor of public and shared transportation, if there were more efficient, widespread and economical services. In addition, the majority of Italians are in favor of a gradual ban on the circulation of polluting vehicles in built-up areas.

Psychosocial aspects of walking

Walking is one of the primary human activities. Today it is instead possible to live sitting down passing from one means to another. Therefore, a project that aims to promote walking becomes innovative and very necessary to promote the well-being of citizens.

There are several psychosocial aspects involved in the success of this idea; they concern the perception that citizens have of:

  • how appreciable and rewarding it is to walk in their city,
  • what motivations walking satisfies
  • how much their overall well-being is enhanced.
  • These three aspects should come to constitute a single integrated personal model, allowing one to move easily from the intention to walk (I want to do it) to the action (I am doing it).

Being aware of these three aspects and their interaction becomes, therefore, necessary for the success of this project on walking. Survey data showed that people appreciate walking in the city if:

  1. sees others walking to work or as an expression of physical activity,
  2. there are green, safe and aesthetically pleasing spaces,
  3. the streets are safe,
  4. pedestrian accidents are rare,
  5. there are schools where people walk,
  6. traffic is reduced.

In relation to individual motivations, it has been found that people are oriented to perform an activity that

  • reduces daily stress and improves mood,
  • improves the relationship with one’s own body,
  • takes place in the open air
  • can be done in company,
  • respects individual rhythms and is moderately intense,
  • is simple and accessible.

The third aspect of this approach concerns the promotion of one’s own well-being. This result derives from the interaction between the two aspects described, which refer to the criteria of walkability and motivation. When these meet, the individual shows a higher level of personal satisfaction, which provides him or her with a better perception of well-being.

Focus on suburbs of the cities: UISP initiatives

The magazine Redattore Sociale returns to the visit of the Sports Department to the Fulvio Bernardini Uisp Roma sport center, with an interview with Tiziano Pesce, Uisp national president. The latter stressed the “political” importance of this meeting, which shifted the spotlight on the peripheries and on the deep problems that grassroots and neighborhood sports clubs are experiencing. The sport for all, which is played on the territories often peripheral and forgotten by all, represents a bulwark of inclusion and social redemption but today is experiencing a moment of transition and crisis.

“Sport is going to the periphery, and so is sports policy. This is the leap forward that Uisp asks of public decision-makers and politics in the sporting sphere: to consolidate the idea that sport is a right of all citizens, that it is an important aspect of health promotion and education, that it is a vector of social cohesion through the values of inclusion and sociality,” commented Tiziano Pesce. “As Uisp we will continue to strive to try to direct public policies of sport in support of social sport and for all, therefore of the associations and amateur sports clubs in the area – adds Tiziano Pesce – asking for a rebalancing of public resources allocated to sport.” In fact, those allocated to sport for all are largely insufficient, less than 4% of the total. In addition, the pandemic has exacerbated these inequalities and today associations and sports clubs are struggling to resume their activities. “There has been an estrangement of young people and families from sports courses, a series of regulations have compressed basic activities”, says the Uisp president.

The request is for extraordinary interventions in support of sports associations in the area. “We hope that in the next few days the restrictive rules on distances will be mitigated and we can return to an activity that involves a greater number of practitioners, both in the gym and in the pool, the latter being one of those who have suffered the most in terms of restrictions and then under the economic-financial aspect, while respecting the rules anticovid that Uisp has always favored with protocols responding to the Dpcm and decrees that have followed,” concludes Tiziano Pesce.

Also present at the meeting was Michele Scicioli, head of the Government Sports department, who said he was aware of both the value and the hardships that the sports world is facing: “We know that the problems of the sports world have fallen on the social fabric … We know how much grassroots sport has suffered in the last year and a half. The choice of this place is not accidental”. Also present was Simone Menichetti, president of Uisp Roma, who spoke of the great value of sport for all and the struggle to survive for many of the clubs that carry out this mission in the area: “A survey of our affiliated clubs revealed that over 30% have stopped their activities, while more than 25% have even closed, leaving a great void, because sport is a social and aggregative phenomenon. This facility is in a peripheral, popular neighborhood: born over 30 years ago, it has become one of the most used facilities in the area, but now it is experiencing great difficulties, after a year and a half of pandemic and the consequent closures. We must recover the ground that the pandemic has made us lose. And that it has made us lose to grassroots sport, more than to the sport of the great federations”.

The alarm raised by the sports promotion bodies regarding the closure of many activities was raised in an article in La Gazzetta dello Sport dedicated to the BeActive weekend. There was talk of the difficulties of grassroots sports; of the meeting on Friday at the Foro Italico between the Sports Department and three sports promotion organizations including Uisp; of “Pillole di movimento”, the project to encourage sports activities illustrated by Tiziano Pesce, president of Uisp. “One tries to react to difficulties in all ways. Precisely on the occasion of the Foro Italico event, Uisp launched “Pillole di movimento”, supported by the Sports Department. From January, 480 thousand boxes will be distributed in 32 Italian cities, a kind of “movement drug” already tested in the province of Bologna. Inside the box, you can find a special “bugiardino” where there will be a sort of decalogue of the importance of sport and proper lifestyles. But the package will be somehow customized city by city, because there will also be an indication of some addresses where you can practice sport with the possibility of a free trial of one month of membership to the chosen center,” says the article.

(Source: UISP)

Walking is a primary behavior

Walking is one of the primary human activity. Today it is possible to live sitting moving from the bed to a car/bus/train to a chair. Therefore a project that is intended to promote walking becomes more necessary than ever to promote the well-being of citizens.

There are several psychosocial aspects involved in the success of this idea; regarding the substance of the perception that citizens have of:

  1. how valuable and rewarding is to walk in the city,
  2. what motives the walk meets,
  3. how much the overall wellness come out strengthened.

These three aspects should come to constitute a single integrated model, allowing to easily switch to plan to walk (I want to) to the action (I am doing). Be aware of these three aspects and their interaction becomes, therefore, necessary for the success of the project.

Survey data have shown that people appreciate the walk into town if:

  1. they see others walking to work or as an expression of physical activity,
  2. there are green spaces, safe spaces and pleasing to the eye,
  3. the streets are safe,
  4. the accidents to pedestrians are rare,
  5. there are schools where you walk,
  6. the traffic is reduced.

In relation to individual motivations has been noted that people want to perform an activity that:

  1. reduces stress and improve mood,
  2. improves the relationship with their body,
  3. takes place outdoors, they can practice with others,
  4. respects their individual rhythms and is moderately intense,
  5. is easy and affordable.

The third aspect of this approach concerns the promotion of the welfare. This derives from the interaction between the two issues described. It refers to the criteria of walkability and motivation. When they interact positively the individuals show a higher level of personal satisfaction, providing a better sense of well-being.

How our society prevents the movement motivation

Sport in italy

  1. The young of the city walking four times less than those living in the city more pedestrian oriented.
  2. More adults watch the news that amplify crime facts, the more they are intimidated and remain at home watching TV.
  3. Children who do not go to school on foot, lose one of the first moments of individual training and adventure.
  4. TV, computer, video games and internet limit the opportunities for movement already reduced by the car use .
  5. In town to walk becomes a symbol of inadequacy and of belonging to  the disadvantaged people.

Bikes and again bikes

Hungarian cyclists rise their bikes during an environment friendly demonstration. The protest ride was organized in order to promote cycling, one of the most environment-friendly forms of traveling, and to raise awareness about the need to improve cycling conditions in the city.