Physical mobility and virtual communication in Italy: Trends, analytical relationships and policies for the post COVID-19

People have always moved guided by the need to carry out various activities in different places, including that of meeting and communicating with other people. Over the past two decades, the concept of “communication” has significantly evolved given the introduction of multimedia digital technologies, which have enabled people to communicate without necessarily their physical presence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, “virtual mobility” (or “virtual communication”) played a crucial role in ensuring communications between people in different contexts of social life, growing in few months to previously unforeseeable levels and demonstrating that it can substitute physical movements in many occasions. A smart management of mobility that combines the ability to virtually communicate and the use of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to support physical mobility, can therefore strongly influence people's choice to move or not, and how. Starting from the analysis of physical mobility and virtual communications trends before and during the health emergency in Italy, this paper analyses the relationships between these two forms of communication, evaluating how virtual communication affected the different segments of Italian mobility during the pandemic and how it will affect the way people move in the post COVID-19 period. A SWOT analysis of virtual mobility is performed for each communication segment, with the aim of highlighting its pros and cons, but also future opportunities and possible threats. Some policy indications are also provided in relation to different mobility segments, governance levels (urban, regional and national) and congestion/pollution scenarios, highlighting how virtual mobility can help regulate physical movements, with the ultimate goal of pursuing a safe, sustainable, effective, efficient and connected mobility.