A BVA Doxa research for Virtuo shed light on the relationship between Milan citizens and their car: the shift towards sustainable mobility has to deal ...
A BVA Doxa research for Virtuo shed light on the relationship between Milan citizens and their car: the shift towards sustainable mobility has to deal with a strong attachment to the family owned four-wheeler and the desire to go back on trip, more than before.
What’s the relationship between Milan citizens and their car? The highly debated ‘mobility with reduced environment impact’ didn’t break the strong bond they share with cars yet. BVA Doxa investigated the propensity to use the car in a research carried out on behalf of Virtuo, the first 100% digital car renting service, arrived in Milan this May.
The research, realized in Milan on a sample of age between 25 and 74 years old, reveals that car ownership is still elevated, with the 94% of the interviewed who said to have a owned car at disposal. A strong desire to go back organizing trips outside the city emerges, probably influenced by the imminent festivities like Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Epiphany, starting from Milan’s own Saint festivities – Saint Ambrogio.
There are positive changes when it comes to sharing services and alternatives means of mobility, now part of Milan citizens’ habits, as well as for the use of cars outside the city: 69% of the interviewed people said they would give up their car if there was the possibility to rent car directly from home.
RETURN TO MOBILITY – With people being able to move freely again, 33% of Milan’s citizens are ready to spend the weekend outside the city. Their preferred destinations? Cities of Art (50%) but also travelling around without a destination in mind, to discover places in our country (31%), especially for the younger generations (37%). But also Mountains destinations (29%) and the places of their own region (22%). The best travel buddy? The partner they have a relationship with (44%), followed by the familiy (30%) and their best friends (15%).
FREQUENCY AND OCCASION OF USE – From the research, it appears that Milan’s citizens use the car an average of 4 days per week, with about half of them (49%) using it a maximum of 2/3 days per week.
The car, besides being used for different types of errands (65%), is particularly linked to free time (61%) or to go outside the city (59%), while 36% of respondents use of it to go to work takes, on top of which there’s a 20% of those who actually use it to do their job.
THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CAR CHANGES – The research highlights that the relationship with the car changes because in the city it’s used alongside other means of mobility by almost 7 Milan’s citizens out of 10 (67%), which in the 55% of the cases, it’s the e-bicycle or the traditional one. The use of shared means of transport is something that 42% of Milan’s citizens do, 64% between 25-44 years old.
Milan’s citizens show they are everyday more interested in car mobility innovations for trips outside the city. Indeed, almost 7 on 10 (69%) give a positive feedback to the idea of renouncing to their own car if they could rent one at any moment with their smartphone, picking it up at withdrawal stations or by being delivered at home. Here comes Virtuo into play, because it offers the possibility to rent a car with the app: with a few clicks you can reserve one, pay for the rent, take it from a withdrawal station, turning it up with a digital key and… start driving!
