Micro-mobility in the “Virucity”. The Effectiveness of E-scooter Sharing.

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic event has produced an acceleration in the use of technological innovation which, in some cases, has substituted some urban activities usually carried out through direct interaction between people. The restrictions on mobility, the collapse of tourism and the spread of teleworking have produced important effects on the demand for mobility at urban, extra-urban and international level. Collective transport was penalized, as considered unsafe for contagion. Policies were mainly oriented at reducing the service capacity to mitigate the theoretical crowding on board rather than increasing the number of vehicles. So, the transport services just worked because the demand for the LPT naturally decreased out of fear of contagion. Alternatively, for short distance in urban areas" non-conventional" modes of travel have been spreading, also encouraged by some governmental measures. The spread of “urban micro-mobility” systems including the supply of e-scooters has had an immediate impact. Beginning with these considerations, this study proposes an analysis of the spread of e-scooters in Italian cities starting from the pandemic event, with the aim of verifying their effectiveness even in the post-emergency phase. With this aim, the study is divided into three parts. The first part offers an overview on the theme of urban micro-mobility particularly referring to the use of e-scooters in Italian cities. The second part illustrates the results of direct surveys carried out through questionnaires addressed to a specific range of users, the undergraduate students, considered as a highly significant age range. In the conclusions, some initial considerations are proposed to define the contribution of these "new modes of travelling" in the city to the whole urban sustainability. The final objective of the study is the foreshadowing of possible recommendations to improve the integration between mobility planning and governance of urban transformations.