Universities towards the 15 Minutes City Model. Current dynamics of accessibility and future mobility opportunities
Creators: name: Caiello, Simone
name: Colleoni, Matteo
name: Daconto, Luca
name: Lacqua, Francesca
name: Ramusik, Anastasiya
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: sustainable cities
sustainable mobility
academic mobility
active mobility
accessibility by proximity

description: Sustainable development, and in particular sustainable cities, represents nowadays one of the greatest challenges that humanity must face. In achieving them, the role of mobility is crucial. Indeed, the Agenda 2030 Goal 11 refers to the urgent need to intervene on mobility practices and tools to achieve global targets. In these terms, it's fundamental to focus on the role of accessibility conceived as “the ability of people to reach and engage in opportunities and activities” (Farrington&amp;Farrington, 2005). This is outlined in terms of both access to mobility and related equity in accessibility, with particular attention to more vulnerable groups of the population and geographical areas at risk of social exclusion. Accessibility, in particular accessibility by proximity (Levine, 2019), and sustainable development are at the core of the “15 minutes city” model (Moreno et al., 2021), recently widespreading in the scientific and public debate. In this context, the proposal focuses on the role of universities in the sustainability of cities, inquiring about them within the 15 mc model. Universities are a resource and a driving force for change in the direction of sustainability and are configured as the main poles of attraction for movements relating to the areas in which they are located (Colleoni, 2022). In fact, nearly 2 million students and employees move throughout Italy on a daily basis (MUR, 2022). According to the latest national survey on daily mobility, on average, students spend 90 minutes and travel 56 km (round trip) to reach the university (RUS, 2020). Added to that, in contexts of high educational importance such as universities, access to mobility and related accessibility translates into the basic human right to education. Moreover, universities can represent spaces of experimentation of new mobility choices and behaviors that can influence long-term transformations. It's especially true for students, who are socialized to mobility in a life phase of change and education, representing an element of influence on the development of the mobility habits of the new generations. This paper, therefore, aims to propose an analysis of the demand for academic mobility in Italy. The purpose is to study the nature of the commuting within different university populations and to identify the most significant factors which influence the choice of moving with a particular focus on drivers for walking/cycling. Analysis is based on data from the second (2020) national survey of the Italian University Network for Sustainable Development on systematic mobility of the Italian university population. Overall, the obtained results are useful for the understanding of university mobility in Italy, thus offering relevant insights for future sustainability policies. Academic mobility management can provide tools and best practices to improve accessibility by proximity of universities within the 15-minute city thresholds, leveraging on intermodality, and active mobility as a key element for it. This will produce beneficial effects in terms of externalities given by trips in the strict sense and for the general quality of life in cities requested by the Agenda 2030. Colleoni, M. (2022), “Politiche integrate per la mobilità sostenibile. I bacini di spostamento degli studenti universitari italiani" in VIII Rapporto Urbanit, Bologna, IlMulino Farrington J., Farrington C. (2005), Rural accessibility, social inclusion and social justice: towards conceptualisation, Journal of Transport Geography, Vol. 13(1), P. 1-12. Levine, J., et all (2019). From mobility to accessibility: transforming urban transportation and land-use planning. Cornell University Press. MUR (2022), “Elaborazioni su banche dati MUR, Ufficio VI – Servizio Statistico”. Moreno, C., et all (2021) Introducing the “15-Minute City”: Sustainability, Resilience and Place Identity in Future Post-Pandemic Cities. Smart Cities, 4(1), 93–111. RUS (2020), “Indagine nazionale sulla mobilità casa-università al tempo del Covid-19”.