Car sharing and car pooling? Yes please

The topic of mobility is quite broad within a very large sector that ranges from the transport of people within cities to the movement of goods between cities or countries.
There are two main problems related to transport which have been considered up to today, particularly with regard to road transport: the use of fossil fuels, with important repercussions on CO2 emissions and a consequent significant contribution to climate change, and the emission of pollutants in the atmosphere that have a strong impact on respiratory diseases and the mortality of people, especially in large urban areas.

Thus there is a need to change our approach and make a shift towards sustainable mobility, where the free movement of people or goods does not create negative environmental and health externalities and helps ensure a good quality of life.

For years there has been an attempt to change people’s lifestyle to make them aware of the risks involved in mobility linked to individual road transport. Bike paths are being built in cities to allow people to get around safely by bicycle, car sharing or car pooling policies are promoted to reduce the number of cars in circulation and encourage car use only when necessary, incentive policies are being created on the use of public transport in “zero traffic” cities to bring people from one place to another quickly, and electric mobility is promoted and is already a reality today for shorter distances.

A second aspect that deserves special attention is associated with the transport of goods: policies in this field should be revised with the aim of shifting and perhaps incentivizing the transport of goods by train or ship as much as possible. In addition, we should produce new vehicles which are able to use cleaner fuels.