Mobility

Sharing mobility, stable demand but decreasing supply

Rentals up by 20% over 2024, but vehicles and operators are decreasing. The territorial divide is weighing heavily: smaller towns are losing services, and almost all use is concentrated in ten cities. Proper integration with public transport is crucial

by Margherita Ceci

(Imagoeconomica)

3' min read

Translated by AI
Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI
Versione italiana

Demand that does not meet supply. Or supply that does not meet demand: whichever way you want to look at it, the imbalance between the parties, typical of so many junctures in Italy, also affects sharing mobility.

And while local administrations are trying to optimise the integration of shared mobility services with public transport, the latest study by the National Observatory on Sharing - promoted by the Ministries of the Environment and Transport and the Foundation for Sustainable Development - shows, in a preview in Il Sole 24 Ore, a stalemate situation.

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Da una parte c’è la domanda che, a fronte di un trend di crescita decennale, sta entrando in una fase di consolidamento. Il numero di noleggi infatti, secondo le previsioni per il 2025 (basate sui dati disponibili al I quadrimestre dell’anno), sarebbe in aumento del 20% rispetto all’anno scorso, dopo una fase di stabilità che ha caratterizzato il periodo 2022-2024. Dall’altra, c’è l’offerta: per il 2025 si prevedono oltre 4 mila veicoli in meno rispetto all’anno precedente, «dovuto soprattutto alla riduzione di monopattini e automobili – si legge nel rapporto –, rispettivamente del 6 e del 17 per cento». Non solo: già nel 2024 si era registrata una diminuzione dei veicoli del 15% rispetto al 2022, e anche il numero degli

The territorial distribution

The citizens of the smallest centres in terms of demographic and territorial size, where services are halved, are paying the price for the decline in services. The phenomenon is particularly accentuated in the centre-south, with the disappearance of experiences in small and medium-sized towns, reports the Observatory, such as Catanzaro, Reggio Calabria, Pesaro and Prato. It is the centre-north that is taking up almost all rentals, with 90% of use concentrated in just ten Italian cities: Rome, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Palermo, Bari, Padua, Pisa and Rimini.

A livello di risorse, il Piano sociale per il clima 2026-2032 che l’Italia deve presentare alla Commissione Ue per l’ottenimento dei fondi, stanzia 9,3 miliardi di euro (7 arrivano dal Fondo europeo per il clima). Un capitale di cui potranno beneficiare «le famiglie vulnerabili, le piccole imprese e gli utenti che sono particolarmente colpiti dalla povertà energetica e dei trasporti». Per quanto riguarda la mobilità cittadina, si tratta in sostanza di incentivi per il passaggio dal trasporto privato a quello pubblico e/o in sharing, riducendo la povertà dei trasporti e migliorando l’accesso ai servizi essenziali. «Questo approccio – scrivono gli analisti – permette di affiancare agli obiettivi ambientali un’azione mirata di coesione territoriale, colmando il divario tra grandi centri e aree periferiche e valorizzando il ruolo della sharing mobility come parte integrante del diritto alla mobilità».

Service Integration

But it is not so much, and not only, sharing that is in trouble, but 'the entire project of rebalancing urban mobility'. The Observatory speaks clearly: shared mobility grows and works when public transport and cycling/pedestrianism are the drivers. Only in this way is it possible to create a virtuous circle that increases the offer for citizens and reduces private cars.

Public transport suffers, still failing to reach pre-Covid volumes. Volumes that were already low, if we consider that in metropolitan areas, journeys made by public transport accounted for just 15% of the total in 2019. Meanwhile, the private motorisation rate remains high: 701 vehicles per thousand inhabitants in 2024, and rising from 2022. And taking metropolitan areas into account, where shared mobility services and cycling and walking policies should reduce the number of cars, the kilometre rate increased by an average of 7.3% between 2019 and 2024.

With regard to the resources put in place, Decree Law 68/2022 envisaged, limited to the years 2022, 2023 and 2024, to dedicate 0.3% of the national fund for local public transport (15.5 million euros in 2024) to the integration of sharing mobility. Among the operations that can be financed are projects relating to company carpooling, a service whose demand has returned to growth after the pandemic crisis: in 2024, the Observatory reports, trips reached 388,000, with a forecast, based on the first half-year data, of a further 40% increase in 2025.

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