A major source of stress for those living in Italian cities is the traffic: mainly in large cities during peak hours there are many who use their own cars to get around, often causing congestion on the roads. To avoid this problem, as well as reducing costs and emissions of exhaust gases, for some years in Italy applies the model of "car sharing" or sharing the car, already active in the United States and in various nations Europe, like France, Germany and England.

This pattern of sharing of a private means of transport, like the automobile, is used especially in policies of sustainable mobility, and over the years has become one of the most effective ways to shift the focus from the possession of the car use thereof. Car sharing provides for private cars but not to give up the flexibility of their mobility needs, so the car goes from being a commodity to that service.

The methods of using them in the car sharing is very simple: To use the service must first pre-book the car at the parking lot, withdraw the time agreed, and eventually drop off the car park of the use of origin, or drop off in a car park other than the levy if specified during the booking process.

As for costs, those who decide to use the car sharing, it must, first, subscribe to the service and therefore pay an annual fee, which must be added charges for each individual Car use: the user is so to pay only when using the car, eliminating all duties arising from management fees of the car, like insurance, taxes, maintenance and even fuel.

The advantage of car sharing is reflected not only in cost savings but also in the impact this may have on the environment: sharing the car with other people means using only moment of real need, so pouring the majority of small displacements on public transport, and also reducing emissions of exhaust gases decreases. Smog and stress from congestion thus tend to fall further if the number of cars in circulation decreases, decreases the problem of congestion of parking.

A final advantage of car sharing is to improve road safety: the cars used for this service are subjected to intensive use, and therefore must be renewed with a frequency higher than private cars. Users in this way can always have cars equipped with the latest security technologies, as well as benefit from technological advances in terms of emissions.

To encourage the use of this new mobility service citizen, various municipalities in Italy have developed the facilities such as the use of bus lanes, and free for limited traffic zones, or free parking in the parking lots and the possibility of move even during periods of limitation on traffic.

Car sharing, in Italy, is promoted by the Ministry of Environment, which, through the circuit by national car sharing, is responsible for assessing the homogeneity of the equipment and ensure that the subscribers to the various services people can take advantage of car sharing in other cities in the circuit. At the moment, in fact, about 16,000 users in Italy who rely on sharing service, for a total of 474 cars and 275 dedicated parking spaces.

The service is currently being extended, and is currently active in the province of Bologna, Rimini, Milan and Turin, in the cities of Modena, Parma, Rome, Genoa, Monza, Palermo, Florence, Mantua, Perugia, Livorno, Taranto, Viareggio and Venice, and short will be activated even in the city of Padua, Savona and Brescia, while the cities of Alexandria, Bari and Naples are considering the proposal to service activation.

TrackBack URI for this entry