At full green

For almost all Italians living in a more sustainable world improves the quality of life. This is what emerges from the research «Sustainability, smart city and smart mobility» carried out by Arval Italia in collaboration with Doxa. “The role of institutions and media”

Make it sustainable. For most Italians (96%) the main consequence of a more sustainable world is the improvement of the quality of life. To achieve this, smart cities and the development of intelligent mobility are significant ingredients. If the majority of citizens (55%) agree that each individual can commit to a better world, without the concrete intervention of institutions and media, there is no going far. This is one of the trends that emerges from the research «Sustainability, smart city and smart mobility», conducted on a sample of 1,500 Italians and carried out in collaboration with Doxa by the Corporate Vehicle Observatory (CVO) of Arval Italia, the independent research platform of the company active in long-term rental, created to investigate news and trends of mobility.

STOP POLLUTION – According to the data, for 62% of Italians a better quality of life means living in less polluted cities; follow, for 51% of compatriots, contributing to the saving of resources such as energy and water and, again, the opportunity to have better public transport services (42%). The guarantee of a good quality of life is therefore linked in the first place to the possibility of being healthy, evoking the need for a sound and conscious management of the main natural resources. If the need to live in a sustainable world is shared unanimously (for 81% it is important for every person, 18% for their children and grandchildren), less confidence is shared in its realization. Regarding the future, in fact, Italians are split in half: only 50% think that in 5 years the world will be really better. Among the main elements that give hope to those who are optimists, there is attention to the good of their children (56%) that can push to more virtuous behaviors and the role of the media (54%), considered useful to understand the benefits that derive from a more sustainable world.

Economic interests (68%) and the selfishness of people (55%) hold back confidence in a better future.

SMART CITY & SMART MOBILITY – In the context of sustainability, the concepts of smart city and smart mobility are placed, which can play an important role in the development of a better quality of general life. According to Italians, to combine these two concepts mentioned, there are two central themes: environmental protection and usability, or the combination of effectiveness and efficiency in the use of services, with technology playing a fundamental role, of facilitator, who always puts man at the center. Different positive behaviors that Italians consider practicing, in their daily lives, in favor of smart-oriented mobility: 81% move on foot or by bicycle for short journeys, 59% inquire about how to always drive safer and 57% on how to do it cleaner. Again, 41% use more vehicles when moving, combining, for example, cars and bikes or cars and public transport.

FOCUS ON INSTITUTIONS AND MEDIA – Italians are therefore willing to commit themselves individually but ask not to be left alone. In fact, although 55% of the interviewees attribute to the individual citizen the role of principal promoter of a sustainable world, almost all Italians ask public institutions (the State but also Municipalities and Regions) training in schools on what is necessary to do to live in a world that offers a better quality of life and more information to citizens about the potential benefits of smart cities and smart mobility (94%). Respondents also express the desire and need for greater clarity on the advantages and disadvantages (91%) of the different types of car power and the situations in which it is better to choose those ones (93%). The stories of the respondents, who were asked to write freely how smart cities and smart mobility can be achieved by contributing to a better quality of life, have shown, following their own imagination, many spaces of action connected to each other. These concern the dissemination of efficient and ecological public and private mobility, the creation of green areas, pedestrian areas and reserved cycle paths, but also all electric vehicles, such as scooters, together with an awareness-raising activity by the institutions targeted to the development of the civic sense in all citizens.

SAFETY VS. PRIVACY – Safety is finally one of the issues on which the attention of Italians is concentrated and, in order to achieve a greater good, which everyone can benefit from, many declare themselves even willing to give up part of their privacy, for example agreeing to transmit the data collected by your car to the police (33%), to your municipality of residence (32%) or to the companies producing data tracking devices (28%). In return, in fact, to obtain, first and foremost, greater safety when driving (38%).