The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented measures changing travel habits in many countries. Many users have started to prefer traveling by private cars, which is against the sustainability policies of the European cities. The necessity of gaining a deeper understanding of road users’ travel habit changes, their feelings on public transport use, and their perceptions of using sustainable urban mobility modes has emerged for future transport planning. Considering these facts, the study in this paper aimed to investigate the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on road users’ perceptions, needs, and use of sustainable travel modes (i.e., public transport, walking, and cycling). An online survey was carried out during the period from March to May 2020 in the case study area, Sicily of Southern Italy. Regarding the population of the case study, the survey was representative, with 431 individuals. The survey included variables, namely gender, age, city of residence, private car ownership, walking and cycling frequency before and during the pandemic, public transport use frequency for leisure activities before and during the pandemic, need for remote working, and the stress and anxiety perception of using public transport during the pandemic. The analysis started with descriptive statistics and it was followed by correlation analysis in order to explore the characteristics of the dataset and relationship between variables. It was found that these were not statistically significantly correlated at a 95% confidence level. An ordinal regression model was applied for determining the predictions. The results suggested that women were less likely to walk during the pandemic than men. Participants were more likely to resume remote work even after the second phase in order to reduce their daily travel needs and keep their isolation. Participants have expressed a positive opinion on the use of micromobility during pandemic situations. These results can be considered as a basis for sustainable urban planning and a guide for decision-makers who aim to encourage the use of public transport, walking, cycling, and micromobility.

The Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP) process deals with barriers to improve accessibility and quality of life in urban mobility. Public opinion is highly essential for this process because it presents the real needs of road users. This paper illustrates the influence of public opinion on using Private Mobility Vehicle (PMV) in urban. A survey was carried out with 400 participants in Palermo, Italy. The results suggested that there was heterogeneity in gender and age groups in subcategories which represented people who use, do not use, and completely reject, using PMVs in urban. In addition, it was explored that there was a statistically significant relationship at 95% confidence level between sociodemographic characteristics (gender and age groups) and public opinion on PMV using. Employment status was found as an important parameter in transport planning. It was also showed that there was an inconsistency between local and national results. The results suggested that sociodemographic characteristics and public opinion should be investigated in further studies. In addition, a participatory planning process should be carried out to monitor for reliable evaluation in urban transport planning.

This article focuses on the state of the art of autonomous driving vehicles (AV), with particular regard to standard equipment currently in use and future developments. The development of these vehicles will allow to achieving better safety standards, less environmental pollution, greater social equity. Many studies show that these vehicles will be widespread in our streets within 20-30 years. The world around us is rapidly changing, changing the way people and goods travel in and through our cities. By 2030, annual passenger traffic will increase by 50% while global freight volumes traded in the world will grow by 70%; another 1.2 billion cars will travel in our streets by 2050 (twice the current cars). The development of appropriate infrastructures is necessary so that all this is possible.

The gradual increase in private mobility, dating back to the second half of the last century in western countries, especially in Italy, has caused the shutdown of several secondary railway lines which are rarely used and therefore little profitable to any institution, either owner or manager. Today the disused road patrimony can be functionally upgraded through conversion of railways into greenways dedicated to the so-called "soft mobility" (i.e. walking and cycling routes), thanks to the following features: i) separation of railway sediment from the ordinary road network; ii) reduced number of intersections with the road network; iii) moderate longitudinal slopes, generally less than 35߮; iv) long straight roads and large horizontal radii; v) width compatibility between the railway platform and that for cyclists and pedestrians; vi) interconnection between urban centres and routes passing often through areas of great natural value, hardly accessible by alternative modes of transport; vii) link with other public transport services. Moreover, since the majority of the disused railway infrastructures is publicly owned, the community is as a rule inclined to accept their conversion into greenways. In some Italian regions, such as Basilicata, Sicily and Sardinia, narrow-gauge railway lines (950 mm) were in the past highly used for orographic, economic and technical reasons, but they are now completely obsolete; a real greenway network can well be built in such contexts. With reference to Sicily, narrow-gauge lines covered approximately 811 km, of which 563 km have been managed by national railways and 248 km given to private companies since 1905. In the light of such potential, on 6 June 2006 the Sicilian Region issued a city council decree on the non-motorized mobility in Sicily, later enforced, as regards the conversion of railway sediments into greenways, by implementing the regional strategic plan for soft and/or non-motorized mobility, i.e. cycle and pedestrian routes called greenways (year 2009); the plan provided for approximately 16.5 million euros to be called for tenders in order to finance the realization of "main", "secondary" and "dedicated" suburban greenways. In this paper, after briefly reviewing the main international and Italian experiences in upgrading old disused railways and after examining some environmental issues closely linked to their construction, we indicate the major design standards and the technical measures required to make their plano-altimetric geometry in line with the national and international technical design standards for cycle tracks.

BIM technologies provide tools and processes to support the entire life of a project effectively, from strategic planning to maintenance. Although this method takes its first steps in the architectural field and also infrastructure design processes currently make frequent use of BIM tools. This paper aims to apply the BIM oriented design method to the underground railway extension in the metropolitan area of Catania in order to show the potential of BIM tools in managing all the components of a multi-disciplinary infrastructure project.

The project choices to design and manage a transport infrastructure system are extremely hard in thinly populated areas like, for instance, protected areas and mostly parks. In actual fact, the need for promotion and development of these areas, often characterized by large surfaces, contrasts with the necessity to preserve their inestimable natural value. The transportation demand in extremely sensible environmental contexts can be satisfied by providing incentives to use reduced-impact means of transport, regulating adequately the vehicle traffic flow and promoting the intermodality between private and public transport systems. Apart from performing their own traditional functions, these systems can become an effective aid to the valorization of protected areas and, sometimes, even a tourist attraction; this potential has especially been shown by some Guided Transport Systems which are already in operation in some Italian national parks. In the light of these experiences, in this paper we illustrate a case study on the improvement of mobility in a park area, showing a comparative analysis carried out among different modes of public transport and focusing on the potential transport, socioeconomic and environmental effects. Among the transport systems examined, some have been singled out because they are suited to be used in the short- to mediumterm (like the purchase of a fleet of electric shuttle buses for residential users and tourists), in that they are complementary to the multiple actions aiming at promoting the socioeconomic growth of the territory; whereas others can be realized in the long term when the said growth emerges as a concrete reality. In this context, one of the public mass transport systems which most suits the needs of the park under study is the "rubber tyre tram" (TVR). This is because the tram carriages equipped with tyres generally guarantee very high kinematic performances, good compatibility with winding tracks with steep longitudinal slopes (even higher than 13%), no air pollutant emissions and very moderate acoustic emissions. Therefore, the primary goal of this paper is to examine the techno-economic feasibility and the environmental compatibility between the "rubber tyre tram" - a mode of transport generally used in urban areas - and the case of parks and areas protected for their natural and environmental value.