HOME-WORK COMMUTING PLAN: DESIGNING A CONSCIOUS MOBILITY

The analysis of vehicular traffic is only the starting point of the mobility manager's design work, whose task is to create a Home-Work Commuting Plan that can redefine urban space. The environmental and social impact that an adequate commuting plan can have on the territory and on quality of life is considerable.

This form of planning balances the trade-off between mobility demand and supply in order to identify which interventions are feasible to change the habits of our journeys. It is configured, in fact, as a tool aimed at improving traffic flow, in order to reach workplaces in a simpler and greener way. How?

Starting from an analysis of accessibility to workplaces, through the use of statistical tools and geocoding tools. The fundamental purpose is to reduce the use of private vehicles in favor of smarter transport systems that can reflect the concrete needs of the territory.

"The objective, - states Marcello Marchese, Head of Special Mobility and commercial management at AMAT Palermo - here we relate to the experience of youMove, is to carry out a study on home-work or home-school journeys, because schools as such are considered macro companies. Through the TMR platform it is possible to carry out a data collection that includes all mobility needs and to try to find a solution in terms of optimization, that can allow a rationalization of journeys, also using alternative solutions, ensuring that all categories are respected, including staff with motor disabilities. For example, in cities with a large urban fabric, using solutions that favor public carriers, therefore: buses, trams, subways or other complementary mobility systems such as car-sharing, bike-sharing, scooter sharing, or systems of public value in which there is the sharing of a vehicle, but which make it possible to reduce private vehicles and, therefore, the congestion phenomena typical of peak hours."

The Home-Work Commuting Plan must, therefore, provide various strategies that can reduce the environmental impact of transport and that make it possible to guarantee, through the available systems and with possible intermodality, the transition from one mode of transport to another, in order to reach the destination more easily.

"Since 2015 the figure of the mobility manager has also been present in schools. - adds Marchese - Young people are often accompanied by their parents and this is not a positive thing, because it creates greater congestion, and the kids too have needs for autonomy, so we must try to steer these journeys towards more sustainable systems. A project that, with TMR, we have so far carried forward for the municipality of Palermo, to strengthen the journeys of students, teachers and administrative staff through the use of shared bicycles, creating proximity parking areas at schools and also creating cycle paths. The information collected thanks to the school mobility managers, through the University and through the youMove platform, which provided us with useful data on which areas had the highest bike pick-ups and where the bikes then accumulated, allowed us to reprogram city mobility.

It is a process that can no longer be neglected because we know what the impacts on the environment are, the pollution levels that are now concentrated mostly in areas with a high population density; vehicular congestion contributes heavily to air pollution and to the increase of CO2. Climate change - he concludes - is before our eyes; the Home-Work Commuting Plan can provide a public service."

Thanks to youMove it is possible, for companies and public administrations, to create a knowledge base of company mobility that can bring concrete solutions. We do not want to take you to the moon, at least for now: changing the culture towards mobility is a challenge we are not afraid to face.