Commuting and Quality of Life: The Italian Case

The role of job uncertainty in inter‐regional commuting: The case of Italy

“…Important changes in working and family lives, due to the increased participation of women in the labour force (Hanson & Pratt, 1995), and consequently to the growth of dual-earner households (Green, Hogarth, & Shackleton, 1999) may have significantly affected the household mobility decisions. The growth in flexible working practices (Beatson, 1995;Christie, 1994) and the diffusion of information technologies pushed to the extensive utilisation of telecommuting, reducing the need to travel to work on a daily basis, and weakening the locational ties between residences and workplaces (Giuliano, 1998;Mokhtarian, Collantes, & Gertz, 2004;Nilles, 1988;Nuvolati, 2007). The growth in flexible working practices (Beatson, 1995;Christie, 1994) and the diffusion of information technologies pushed to the extensive utilisation of telecommuting, reducing the need to travel to work on a daily basis, and weakening the locational ties between residences and workplaces (Giuliano, 1998;Mokhtarian, Collantes, & Gertz, 2004;Nilles, 1988;Nuvolati, 2007).…”

“…First, commuting in Italy is a relevant phenomenon and has become even more important after the end of the 1990s (Figure 1). Nevertheless, commuting in Italy is not perceived negatively by the population, but as a common practice due to the high quality of life in small and medium-sized cities and the traditional strong attachment of individuals to the place where they were born (Nuvolati, 2007). Commuting times are also getting longer, with 18.5% of individuals spending more than 30 min to reach their workplace in 2011 compared to 16% in 2001.…”

“…Statistics from the Italian Institute of Statictics (Istat) show that in 2011, 280.000 individuals commuted for work to a different region, up from 187.000 in 2001. Hence, the so-called "voting with your feet" process (Tiebout, 1956), according to which people choose where to live based on local public goods and services offered in different municipalities, as for the Anglo-Saxon countries (Findlay & Rogerson, 1993), does not seem to apply for the Italian case (Nuvolati, 2007). Nevertheless, commuting in Italy is not perceived negatively by the population, but as a common practice due to the high quality of life in small and medium-sized cities and the traditional strong attachment of individuals to the place where they were born (Nuvolati, 2007).…”

Understanding Mobilities for Designing Contemporary Cities

“…The total negative balance (including metropolitan cities) is 518,487 ( Table 2). The main reasons of the exodus from the cities mainly concern cost of living, housing opportunities, transport facilities, the quality of life that families consider more appropriate to their expectations in the external areas than in the central commune (Nuvolati 2006). Of course, such a phenomenon does not mean that cities are disappearing; on the contrary, cities are confirming their supremacy.…”

Quality of Life in Cities: A Question of Mobility and Accessibility

“…Cities interact constantly with different populations coming from different places, and having different potentials. The metropolis, in particular, is currently characterized by the growing presence of different "user populations": commuters, tourists and metropolitan businessmen, competing in the processes of accessing, controlling and using resources and services (Martinotti, 1999 ;Nuvolati, 2003aNuvolati, , 2006 . Therefore, in order to study quality of life, problems and opportunities in the communities must be analyzed according to the daily flows of people using resources and services located in the city, and not only considering the ratio between resources and local population.…”