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Enabling Mobilities pp 27–41Cite as

Emerging Mobilities: New Practices, New Needs

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Abstract

This chapter introduces new research findings on mobility practices in Italy that suggest a transformative nexus for explaining the role of mobility in contemporary cities. Superseding simplified interpretations of mobility as movement through space, this chapter describes emerging mobility practices and their temporal space variability to highlight socio-economic and lifestyle transformations, with particular attention on long-distance daily commuting (LDC). As an emerging form of work-related mobility, LDC is the result of the combined effects of an evolving labour market, that requires more and more flexibility while also subjected to increasing degrees of uncertainty, as well as of the territory and the transport and communication networks that allow the lengthening of travel. The interest in these mobility practices concerns the conditions that determine them, the consequences in lifestyle and in the uses of a territory and its networks. Through a sequence of quantitative analyses, supported by complementary and qualitative surveys and several interviews, the chapter analyses the emerging needs, times and conditions of using spaces and networks. It also examines the intensity of interactions activated by these practices that question traditional mobility services and provisions, and generate emerging new goods and services.

This chapter was authored by Paola Pucci.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The EU research “Job mobilities and Family Lives in Europe” (http://www.jobmob-andfamlives.eu/) investigated the job related high mobilities of a sample of 7220 people in 2007 in six European countries (Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Poland and Belgium). This survey has been updated in 2011 only in Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland.

  2. 2.

    According to Kaufmann (2002, p. 25) “reversibility and irreversibility must be considered as ideal-types in that, forms of mobility are never purely reversible or irreversible”.

  3. 3.

    In Australia the sample is composed by 53 commuters in Sydney, routinely travelling 35 min each way, who responded to a newspaper advert calling for participants who experience stress as part of their everyday mobile life. In Canada, the sample is made by 18 floatplane pilots working as a unique commuter for commercial companies based in coastal British Columbia. In Denmark the sample are jet supercommuters defined as frequent fliers of a 45 min daily Scandinavian Airlines flight connecting the cities of Aalborg and Copenhagen (Bissell et al. 2017).

  4. 4.

    As mentioned by Ralph (2014), the term is a play on Adrian Favell’s definition of ‘Eurostars’, describing the EU citizens who live outside their home country in another member state. According to Favell (2008) these people are a pioneering group of EU citizens in an ever-more integrating Europe.

  5. 5.

    The source is the national census by Istat, available at the municipality level for all the Italian territory. Istat’s census (2001–2011) provides data only on Origin and Destination of commuters’ flow for study and work reasons, with additional information on modal share and time of displacement.

  6. 6.

    In our research, we selected LDCs by considering travel distances over 75 km one way. The distances have been calculated using the graph of the infrastructure network. They are therefore geographical distances between an origin (home) and a destination (workplace).

  7. 7.

    The sources are the national census by Istat and the Lombardy O/D matrix. Istat’s census (2001–2011) provides data on commuters’ flow for study and work reasons (O/D, modal share and time of displacement); O/D matrix by Regione Lombardia is a survey led in 2002 and 2014, on all daily displacements (reasons, modal share, time of displacement, professional profile, gender, age).

  8. 8.

    The approach has been experienced in Vendemmia’s PhD thesis (2015) and in Akhond’s Master thesis (2017), both developed in the Politecnico di Milano. See also Vendemmia (2017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Paola Pucci

  2. Department of Transportation Engineering and Logistics, Centre for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Giovanni Vecchio

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  1. Paola Pucci
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  2. Giovanni Vecchio
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Correspondence to Paola Pucci .

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Pucci, P., Vecchio, G. (2019). Emerging Mobilities: New Practices, New Needs. In: Enabling Mobilities. SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19581-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19581-6_3

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