Traffic congestion, atmospheric pollution, noise, road accidents, financial burden and land occupation of car-related infrastructures have led many municipalities to rethink their travel policies with the aim of reducing the use of private cars in favour of other environment-friendly means of transport, notably public transport.

However, the efforts made in this direction have not managed to reverse the trend, which is still in favour of private cars. Alternative or complementary solutions envisaged include systems for splitting the use of private cars.

Several years ago, Turin instigated the Elletra system to control and limit the access of private cars into the "old town". There was heavy private traffic in this area with the corresponding burden on parking spaces. This policy was accompanied by the installation of paid parking.

These measures were all taken within the context of the urban travel plan. The Elettra system was introduced in 1996. In July 1998, Elettra Park had about 2 000 subscribers.

The Elettra Park system has been implemented in Turin since September 1996. It is based on a fleet of 20 electric vehicles (Fiat Panda 2-seater), centralized in a single station on the Piazza Vittorio Veneto car park. Parking facilities here are, in fact, "double", which means that a driver can leave his own vehicle there and borrow an Elettra Park electric vehicle. To do this, he must first purchase a prepaid magnetic card, the E-Card, which is sold by the “Castorino” agency, in charge of vehicle rentals.

The E-Card is an electronic card protected by a secret pin number. It carries the user's information and is used to connect to the computer managing Elettra Park. The user can choose between different amounts (with a minimum of 7.75 euros). Once he has the card, the user is autonomous. He can go to the car park on the Piazza Vittorio Veneto, insert the card into one of the "customer" terminals, for identification, then borrow a vehicle.

Each vehicle is parked in a space equipped with a recharging terminal. This indicates by a signal whether or not the vehicle is available. When there are no vehicles available, the "customer" terminal shows a waiting time. When a vehicle is free, the user can disconnect it and get in, the doors being unlocked automatically.

Once his trip is over, the user inserts his card into the "customer" terminal again and the amount charged for renting the electric vehicle is debited. If he drove to the Elettra Park in his own vehicle, he then has ten minutes in which to leave.

In July 1998, Elettra Park had about 2 000 subscribers, some of whom subscribed through curiosity and made only one trip, while others are frequent users of the service.

Studies of socio-economic profiles of users have shown that most of them are aged between 18 to 40. All the charts show an excessive representation of students in user categories, probably for two reasons:

According to a survey performed for users of the Elettra Park service, the level of satisfaction is about 75% (20% did not reply).

Since the system was opened to the public in September 96, Elettra Park vehicles have covered 230 000 kilometres, an average of 11 500 kilometres per vehicle in 18 months of service (the system having been interrupted from January to April 98 for vehicle maintenance).

Considering the distances covered by the vehicles, the managers of Elettra Park estimate the quantity of CO not emitted into the air (over 12 months) at about three tonnes.

Azienda Torinese Mobilità - ATM
M. Giacomo Mancuso, tel. +39 011 576 45 33

01/01/1996

case

Urban Policy > Transport and infrastructure > Roads and road transport

Vehicles