Vehicles halved, rentals to a minimum The pandemic in Florence has overwhelmed sharing
In the beginning there were the white cars of the car sharing linked to the ACI, an experiment that never really took off. The smart cars of Car2Go followed, then ShareNow a moment before the farewell, and the fire red Cinquecento by Enjoi, Eni’s rental. But that’s not all: Florence was the first Italian city where Mobike rental bikes made their debut in 2017. Two years later, the administration was enthusiastic about the bet on sharing. The numbers told of a success: 250,000 subscribers, more than 3 million trips, 4 million kilometers traveled only on rental bikes. And so on to the relaunch on scooters, scooters, new e-bikes, pieces in the path of sustainable mobility which, in the plans of the Florentine municipal administration, had one of its central points precisely in the various sharing services, despite the farewell of Car2Go to early 2020. Then came the pandemic to overwhelm, or almost, the world in sharing. Distrust in using a vehicle just used by another, lack of tourists and off-site students, quarantines, smart working: a disaster, to which is added the obligation (just from the point of view of safety) to wear a helmet on scooters. The sector fell into crisis, also putting Palazzo Vecchio in difficulty.
Automobiles
After Car2Go, Florence was the third city – after Rome and Milan – to welcome Enjoy. It was November 2014 and Eni’s car sharing, carried out with Fiat and Trenitalia, landed with about 200 vehicles € 6. 100. The other car sharing company TiMove, with Adduma car. Active since the end of 2020, it has a hybrid fleet of 120 cars at its disposal. But the remittance service: in January the average was 2-3 trips a day for each vehicle, I count an optimal level of 7.
Bicycles
Many have tried the Mobikes, launched everywhere, literally also in the Arno, in the Mugnone and in the Terzolle. Now called Ridemovi, the manager has expanded the operating area from 15 to 27.5 square kilometers from June 2021 and another thousand pedal-assisted. Here the problem is the reduction of students and the wave of smart working that has limited city travel, but the service is the least penalized by the pandemic. The serious problem remains that of abandonment, Ridemovi tries to counteract it by offering discounts to those who park well.
Scooters
Bird has 300, TiMove and Bit as many. After an initial boom, the rental scooter service is now stagnating. Here too, fewer students, fewer workers, fewer trips: in January TiMove and Bit, compared to November 2021, saw a 50% cut. And in addition there is the ordinance of the Municipality that obliges the helmet to be worn, in April the TAR pronounces on the appeal of the companies that manage the service, which threaten to leave if the obligation is confirmed and Palazzo Vecchio does not bear the higher costs .
Scooter
The investigation of the exact number of mopeds in the city is the most complex. The data of December 2020 spoke of 50 scooters of TiMove, 200 of Bit, 50 between Bird and ZigZag, 100 of Mimoto and 200 of Reby. Six hundred scooters, all electric. But the service never took off, with the pandemic the idea of putting a helmet on your head used shortly before by another did the rest. Result: Bit, for example, has already gone from 200 to 60 scooters in Florence.
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February 14, 2022 | 20:35
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