Mobility

Sustainable Mobility and Benefits for the UNIPR University Community – 2026

The University of Parma promotes a sustainable mobility policy aimed at improving travel for students, academic staff, researchers, and technical-administrative personnel by encouraging transportation solutions that are efficient, accessible, and environmentally friendly. Through its corporate mobility portal, the University provides a range of agreements, discounted fares, and services designed to encourage the use of public transportation and reduce reliance on private cars.

These initiatives include discounted subscriptions for urban and interurban public transport, agreements with local and national transport operators, special discounts on rail travel, and support tools for planning home-to-university and home-to-work journeys. These benefits are available to various members of the academic community, including students, PhD candidates, medical residents and postgraduate trainees, faculty members, and university staff.

The website also serves as a reference point for the activities of the University Mobility Manager and for the Home-to-Work Travel Plan (PSCL – Piano degli Spostamenti Casa-Lavoro), key tools through which the University promotes more sustainable mobility practices, helping to reduce environmental impact, urban traffic congestion, and transportation costs.

Through these initiatives, the University of Parma reaffirms its commitment to the well-being of the university community, environmental sustainability, and accessibility to services, fostering increasingly innovative, convenient, and responsible mobility solutions.

Podere Ambolana Campus Science and Technology – Self-service bicycle maintenance station

The University has installed a self-service bicycle maintenance station designed to support students, staff, and visitors in carrying out routine maintenance on their bicycles and to encourage sustainable mobility.

The station consists of a robust metal structure equipped with a support arm that allows bicycles to be lifted and securely positioned during maintenance operations. It is fitted with a range of tools for the most common repairs, including Allen keys, screwdrivers, and other bicycle-specific equipment. These tools are attached to the structure with security cables to prevent theft and ensure their continued availability.

The station is also equipped with a tire inflation system, including a compressor and pressure gauge, enabling users to check and restore tire pressure quickly and easily.

The facility allows users to perform minor maintenance tasks independently, such as adjusting mechanical components, tightening loose parts, servicing the chain, and inflating tires, thereby improving the safety, efficiency, and lifespan of bicycles used for daily travel.

This initiative forms part of the University’s broader commitment to sustainable mobility, with the aim of promoting cycling as an environmentally friendly, healthy, and efficient means of transportation both within and to the university campus.

19 September 2025: “The University of Parma @ MOST”, spotlight on research into sustainable rail transport and urban mobility

From 10 a.m. at the Sant'Elisabetta Centre, meeting as part of the PNRR activities of the National Centre for Sustainable Mobility. Visit to the experimental prototypes at the Science and Technology Campus

Home-work commute plan

Habitual travel, such as commuting to university, understood as a place of work and study, makes the largest percentage contribution in terms of air pollution and vehicular congestion. People's quality of life itself is degraded by inefficient mobility management: stress caused by traffic and the search for parking, as well as health repercussions.

In order to obtain solutions for this critical issue, the Ministry of Environment issued a decree called “Sustainable Mobility in Urban Areas” on March 27, 1998, which provides for the establishment of a corporate mobility manager, or Mobility Manager, for companies and public bodies with more than 300 employees on a single local unit or with more than 800 employees on several local units. The Mobility Manager is in charge of preparing the Home-Work Commute Plan, which makes it possible to represent the transportation habits of employees, their propensity to change, and to propose, based on the results obtained, measures to reduce

the use of private cars in favor of more sustainable modes of transportation. In general, the corporate Mobility Manager is responsible for managing the demand for employee mobility.

The population of the University of Parma has about 1740 structured employees (teaching and research staff, technical and administrative staff, and linguistic expert collaborators) who daily travel to university sites to carry out their work. There are also approximately 27,000 students enrolled in the 2017/2018 Academic Year (enrolled in bachelor's, master's, single-cycle degree, PhD, and specialization courses).

 The University of Parma has facilities distributed throughout the municipal area. Four macro areas can be identified: Science Area Park Campus (where 40 percent of employees are based), Center (30 percent of employees), Hospital (20 percent of employees divided between the Biotechnological Pole in Via Volturno and the buildings located in Via Gramsci) and Veterinary (5 percent of employees). In the suburban area there is also CSAC with about 10 afferent employees.

(See attached “MAP”)

The following habits emerge from the latest Home-Work Commute Plan (2015 survey) regarding staff:

• The traditional car during rush hour is the mode used by most employees at Campus (60%), Veterinary (60%) and Hospital (50%).

• The modal split for Center locations is almost equally distributed between bicycle (20%), traditional auro (25%) and public transportation (22%).

• The bicycle is one of the most frequently used means of travel to the Center and Hospital locations (13% of respondents).

• The time taken for the Home-University route is for almost 47% of respondents between 0 and 18 minutes; for about 32% it is between 18 and 36 minutes.

• The average Home-University distance for almost 72% of respondents is less than 18 km.

• About 15% of respondents make stops along the home-work commute.

A large proportion of employees reside in the city: about 55 percent of those working at the Campus and Center, about 60 percent of those working in Veterinary and 67 percent of respondents working at the Hospital.

The motivations that lead employees to choose the means of commuting to their place of work on a daily basis are: autonomy of movement (especially for Hospital, Veterinary, and Campus staff), travel time (especially for Veterinary and Campus employees), less stressful alternative, and cost-effectiveness (for Center staff this is the main reason).

(See Appendices 1 and 2)

The objectives achieved so far, can be summarized in the following points:

Signing of the Agreement between the University and Infomobility to enable the entire university community (students, structured and non-structured staff) to take out free and subsidized subscriptions for Bike Sharing, Car Sharing and secure parking in the Cicletteria.

Facilitated bus passes for University employees both annually (urban and suburban) and semi-annually (urban only).

Initiatives aimed at the entire university community to encourage sustainable mobility: Bike Challange during Sustainable Mobility Week, the “TEP comes to you” meetings to allow students and employees to make bus passes directly on campus, Infomobility information desks on services offered.

Participation in municipal and national calls for proposals for co-financing measures to encourage sustainable mobility in home-work/study travel.

For details of projects carried out so far, see the University of Parma's corporate mobility page: http://www.unipr.it/servizi/oltre-lo-studio/mobilita-aziendale.

Contact: Chiara Iacci - University Mobility Manager (+39 0521 906299, mobility.ateneo@unipr.it)