A network based method to study urban sharing mobility: digital data from Milan

Urbanization is a global and mounting phenomenon. Millions of people have moved from rural to urban areas in the last years, threatening cities’ sustainability. Mobility is indeed one of the central issues, with governments... [ view full abstract ]

Urbanization is a global and mounting phenomenon. Millions of people have moved from rural to urban areas in the last years, threatening cities’ sustainability. Mobility is indeed one of the central issues, with governments searching for solutions although with different pace. Among these solutions, sharing mobility is getting greater attention given the potentiality to improve environmental sustainability but also to favor a “sharing” economy approach. In spite of the increasing interest, there is a lack of contributions on how Sharing Mobility can be evaluated for informing policy maker and private investors. This paper aims at improving the way sharing mobility is analyzed and monitored. We propose and test a methodology, based on the theory of networks, aimed at studying sharing mobility dynamics with a more granular approach, entering city districts. After the development of key metrics, the method is applied to the City of Milan, using data tracking people’s movements coming from bike and car sharing platforms. The paper has a two-fold contribution: it provides a comprehensive approach for sharing mobility evaluation, entering in the city dynamics; second, it is an application that shows the potentiality of digital data in managing sustainability.