Tackling Un-sustainable Mobility. Smart City Tools to Limit Car Access to the City Center Through MaaS Solutions, the Genoese Experience

Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) solutions usually aim at defining an integrated and multi-modal framework to make sustainable mobility choices easier and seamless. Nevertheless, several scholars highlight that their effectiveness in supporting modal-shift from individual mobility is therefore limited without side-interventions on making more difficult, expensive and non-competitive the use of private cars. Similar goals may be achieved through the increasing of sustainable alternatives' attractiveness (effective and easy multi-modal integration reducing travel times, convenient fare policies.) or the reduction of individual cars privileges (urban tolls, congestion charges, controlled or limited access to green-vehicles to urban cores.). Recently, Genoa Municipality has started to evaluate a smart-gate system to border the city center and limit car access. This measure targets several goals: to control vehicles flow, collect data on city users and support modal shift towards public transport and sharing mobility. Moreover this measure should be able to make sustainable alternatives more appealing together with the adoption of a urban MaaS solution (thanks to "GetUp" project, currently ongoing) integrating urban parking, PT services and sharing mobility options. Data-driven process should improve urban performances concerning sustainable mobility and improve citizens quality of life in terms of reducing polluting emissions and ease individual journeys across the city.