Bike sharing for students’ mobility: the case study of the new engineering hub in Naples, Italy

The mobility choice of university students represents one of the most interesting issue within the scientific literature of the sector, considering the impacts that these choices might have on congestion. In all the European cities where cycling mobility and bike sharing are experiencing a continuous growth, mobility policies have fostered the use of these transport alternatives. The bicycle, in the period between the end of the nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth century, was the mostly chosen means of transport thanks to its characteristics of cheapness and elasticity in use. However, with the continuous technological development, the use of bicycles has increasingly reduced in favor of a mobility based mainly on private cars and motorcycles. The progressive deterioration of the livability of urban centers and neighboring areas has led public administrations of northern Europe to an overall reorganization of the transport system. The key words of the reorganization of transport are: “sustainable transport”, “intermodality”, “traffic calming”. In this context, urban mobility policies have focused on fostering the use of bicycles at the urban level, increasing bike sharing in cities. In the city of Naples no initiative is promoted to make bike sharing accessible within university areas. In 2016 a new engineering hub was inaugurated located in San Giovanni a Teduccio, an Eastern borough of the city of Naples. The neighboring municipalities have proposed the idea of encouraging the use of bicycles to reach this hub. Among them there is the city of Portici, one of the most densely inhabited areas in the territory (with 12,000 inhabitants / km
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), 4 km away from the new engineering hub in San Giovanni a Teduccio. Starting from these considerations, after showing the history of bike and bike sharing, the aim of this research is to evaluate the attitude to choose bike sharing for potential engineering students residing in Portici. For this reason, a mobility survey (RP and SP) was conducted at the high schools of the city of Portici. The results show that on average a student is willing to walk up to 900 meters to reach the bike sharing station. In the case that the bike sharing service is with pedal assistance charged of an annual cost of 30 euros, there is a higher attitude to choose bike sharing, but less attitude to walk to reach the station. Indee, in this case a student on average is willing to walk up to 600 meters to reach a bike sharing station.