New velostation Bovisa La Masa opens

On World Bicycle Day, the third bicycle station of the Politecnico di Milano was inaugurated at the Bovisa-La Masa Campus.

Inside the two rooms you can find:

• 72 parkup places
• 16 arches for parking bicycles
• a bicycle workshop equipped with a workbench, a set of keys and a Bike Repair Station
• 8 parking spaces for scooters with electrical sockets for charging.

The space is open from Monday to Saturday from 7.30 am to 8.30 pm.

The velostation joins the two already existing ones at the Leonardo and Bovisa Durando campuses, for a total of 132 spaces for bicycles and 14 for scooters in the three university velostations, accessible via badge or PoliCard.

In addition to being one of the priority actions envisaged by the University's Home-Work Travel Plan, bicycle stations are an opportunity to encourage the use of active and sustainable forms of mobility. They also represent one of the University's many actions to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals set out in the UN 2030 Agenda.

Data on the movements of the Politecnico community

It was also an opportunity to present data on the modal share of the Politecnico population, with a focus on cycling mobility.

It emerged that Local Public Transport is widely used, both for exclusive use (48% students; 40% staff) and for combined use (25% students; 13% staff). There is also a high percentage of active walking/cycling/scooter mobility (especially for the Città Studi campus), with twice as many staff using bicycles as students (14% staff; 7% students); on the other hand, students walk more (12% compared to 9% staff).

Finally, private motorized vehicles are mainly used by staff: 24% (compared to 8% of students).

With reference to active mobility, i.e. journeys on foot or by bicycle, it can be seen that under 3.5 km this always exceeds 60% of journeys (however, it is clear that the use of the car is already consistent in Bovisa over 3 km) and that the bicycle has an important share even above 3.5 km, especially for the staff. In addition, the area of influence of cycling covers a large part of the city and several surrounding municipalities; the preferred bike routes are the shortest ones from the areas of origin, as long as they are considered safe and comfortable.

Finally, the survey conducted in 2022 shows that there is an interesting propensity to use bicycles in the presence of an increase in cycle paths (requested by more than 25% of respondents). In addition, there is also the request for: safer parking, greater control over theft, the presence of changing rooms and showers and also mobility credits, an issue closely linked to "bike to work".

The path towards more sustainable mobility in our university is part of a broader Strategic Sustainability Plan that aims to promote full awareness of the centrality of sustainable development in our community, over 60,000 people in addition to all those who pass through the Politecnico for Life Long Learning activities.

says Alessandro Perego, Vice-Rector for Sustainable Development and Impact on Society.

We are working to have greener campuses, with a net-zero carbon footprint by 2040 and fully interconnected with the rest of the city and the territory. In this perspective, collaboration with local institutions is a fundamental element. 

Thanks to this commitment, 18,500 square metres have been made car-free with a reduction of 120 parking spaces and an increase of 270 bicycle spaces. In addition, 650,000 euros have been allocated to increase the offer of bike parking, so much so that the racks will increase by 800 spaces by 2025.

More information
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