The fear of public transportation and its environmental impact

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What’s happening to public transportation?
One of the several effects of the pandemic on our daily life is surely related to transportation. People are increasingly using private vehicles causing inevitable negative consequences in terms of congestion and environmental impact.
There is no need to explain the impact that the increasing number of private vehicles has caused and still causes on the environment. We have known it for years and we have seen it very clearly during the lockdown period. Lowering emissions to the levels of that period is almost impossible, because, fortunately, industries are back to work and people have started travelling again. In any case, preferring public to private transport remains an important weapon against pollution. But even though the pandemic has forced us to lower emissions, now that life is resuming its rhythms, it is just the perception of the risk of contagion that is causing the use of public transport to decrease dramatically

A recent ISTAT (Italian National Statistic Institute) survey indicates that this autumn we will see a 20% increase in the use of private cars, in favour of a parallel decrease in the use of mass transportation. At the same time, the results of the survey conducted by Doxa for the Transport Regulatory Authority go hand in hand: over 70% of those interviewed consider all collective means of transport to be “much less safe” or “less safe” than in the pre-Covid period. 

All this is causing not only long queues on the roads of major cities but is also damaging the environment. Public mobility promotes, therefore, sustainability and is also an indispensable factor for the recovery of the country, but its recovery passes through safety. As stated by the president of the Transport Regulatory Authority Nicola Zaccheo:

“the recovery of public transport will be strongly conditioned by the regaining of a positive attitude towards collective transport“. 

For this reason, it is necessary to implement and adequately communicate effective solutions capable of contrasting this distrust.It is really similar to a paradox but to take a step towards the future, at least in this situation, we need to take a step towards the past and bring people back to feel as safe as possible even on public means of transport, and even more than before. 

At Viraschutz we believe in the future and we work every day with the aim of creating changes able to solve problems. Attention to the environment is an integral part of our mission and we fully embrace the need to reduce emissions by restarting collective transport. In this sense, our research provides a solution by ensuring safety and peace of mind in shared environments 24 hours a day. By generating an antimicrobial shield on surfaces, the Viraschutz solution keeps environments free of microorganisms at all times of the day for 3 months with just 1 treatment. Not only will you be able to sit and place your hands on constantly disinfected surfaces, thanks to the electrostatic force of the shield, you will also feel safe from airborne pathogens.   

Nonetheless, we are completely aware that it is not enough to adopt more effective security measures, but to restore peace of mind it is necessary to communicate their presence and potential. This is why we strive to always create the right conditions to stimulate new confidence towards collective environments. For this reason, those who choose the Viraschutz solution will spread science and innovation, the only ones capable of changing the course of things, bringing back the normality of the past, and improving it to create a better normality for the future.

Sources:
Trasporti, il Covid fa ancora paura. Ecco perché le grandi code in città – Il Corriere
Italia 2021, Competenze per riavviare il futuro – PWC
La mobilità di domani – Micromega

ANGELA FANUCCI
Angela has a background in Marketing and International Communication for Business and recently joined Viraschutz to fill up the role of Demand Generation Manager.

She is keen on storytelling and fascinated about science. What she likes the most of her job, is writing articles covering authentic scientific communication with the purpose to make it available to everyone. Most often these writings are four-handed with our Chief Scientist, Prof. Roberta Censi. Angela loves reading and writing, being a watchful eye on our everchanging world, because what surrounds us is what drives the research at Viraschutz.

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