CDP’s new report investigating Italy’s urban mobility landscape is online
Rome May 3,2019
Local public transport (LPT) is the cornerstone of urban mobility and is currently undergoing a transformation process: beginning with this theme, the new CDP report investigates the evolution of this sector which, despite obvious difficulties, is fundamental for the development and competitiveness of the entire national economy, especially in terms of sustainability.
The sectorial Focus, created by CDP, gives a snapshot of the sector and shows significant delays in Italy compared to other European countries: the availability of fixed structures such as metro and tramlines is scarce, while the bus fleet has a high average age (12.3 years in 2018, compared to an EU average of 7 years).
Although demand for mobility is gradually evolving towards collective transport, it remains strongly weighted towards private vehicles (about 60% of journeys are made by car). In this context, total public resources allocated to develop LPT start to become significant and amount to over 22 billion euros for the 2017-2033 period. They are available on a multi-year horizon and differentiated over time, in order to provide an incentive for the sector in the first few years.
These resources can have really significant effects over time, both in terms of added value, about 4.3 billion euros a year (0.2% of GDP) in the 2019-2023 period, and in terms of employment, with approximately 110,000 additional annual work units (or 0.5% of total employment) in the same five-year period. Not to mention the benefits of such investments on the urban environment, in terms of public land use and emission reduction. In this context, it is necessary to allocate resources for wider actions on the urban environment, with the aim of aligning Italy with European standards.