Detailed description (English): The Rector of “Università degli Studi dell’Insubria” (University of Insubria) has decided to appoint a permanent mobility manager, in order to promote sustainable mobility policies, reducing the pollution and congestion of commuters’ flows to/from the Academic sites. The University of Insubria, which is located in the North West of Italy in Lombardia region near the border with Switzerland, has developed a bi-polar network system involving the two main centers of Varese and Como under the single name of Insubria.
Università degli Studi dell’Insubria was born in 1998; it is a public medium-small University, but highly dynamic, rooted in a highly industrialized context. At present, it employs 684 workers, of which 52% researchers and lecturers and the remaining 48% are administrative employees. It has about 9.800 students; in the last five years the number of students increased by 10% and it is still growing. About 30% of students comes from other Italian cities located outside the Insubria region of Varese and Como and from foreign countries.
All the universities, like other types of public and private institutions, have both positive and negative impacts on the area where they are situated. On the one hand, they give a key contribution to the competitiveness of the area, bringing up future generations of workers and spreading culture and innovation; on the other hand, they are large generators/attractors of traffic. The situation is worsened by the fact that students and employees generally prefer to use private cars or motorbikes in their daily commuting mobility.
The ability to successfully balance the pros and cons of the urban location of these large traffic-generating institutions is crucial for their success and for the livability of the city. The achievement of this objective can be supported by the mobility manager. his/her main role would be to stimulate behaviour change from travellers by highlighting and encouraging the use of modes cleaner than private cars, such as public transport, walking and cycling. Mainly using 'soft' awareness-raising measures like information, communication and marketing campaigns, the mobility manager would invite the academic commuters to try alternatives to car use and see first-hand how cleaner mobility can benefit them in terms of health, finances, and quality of life, in addition to improving the environment. She/he will also collect some data on commuters habits and collaborate with the municipality in order to identify effective policies to improve the accessibility of the university sites, improving public transport services and creating the conditions for a safe and easy use of bicycle.
The mobility manager could promote, for example, the following strategic lines:
Information and awareness programs for all the students and staff.
Active participation in decision making structures and institutional bodies to promote a sustainable change and effectiveness in mobility matters.
Actions to promote the use of public transport among the university community.
Bicycle promotion at the campus.
Pedestrian promotion at the campus.
Car sharing and car pooling promotion at the campus.
Inclusion of “sustainable mobility” in every university’s learning processes.
Target group(s): Students, university employees, citizens, policy makers
Objectives: - to promote sustainable mobility to/from the University campus
- to improve the awareness of the importance of using clean transport modes in terms of health, finances, and quality of life, by saving energy and protecting the environment
- to suggest alternatives to the use of car use, trying to change travellers’ attitudes and behavior, i.e. to increase the use of public transport, walking and cycling, car pooling, car sharing, bike sharing and other innovative mobility strategies
Expected Outcomes: - To reduce the negative externalities coming from commuting flows to/from the university locations
- To increase the use of transport modes cleaner than the private cars.
Partner: The municipality of Varese and Como and other local organisations, such as FIAB Ciclocittà - Varese and Legambiente, will be involved in some strategic actions