The paper deals with a quantitative analysis on the competitiveness of intermodal transport, based on Motorways of the Sea (MoS), in comparison with all-road transport. This analysis is applied to MoS routes connecting the Italian mainland with Sicily. The study involves: a detailed intermodal network model which compares monetary costs and travel times from all relevant origins in the mainland to all relevant destinations in Sicily; and a survey carried out at some representative trucking firms operating to / from Sicily. The aim of the interviews has been: on one side to make a comparison between the theoretical and actual mode of transport and routes taken, and in case they are different, to understand the reasons of the discrepancy; on the other side to determine what are the main aspects taken into account by trucking companies in their modal choice, in order to understand how the competiveness of MoS against road transport can be improved. The results of the analysis show that the modal choice is affected by several elements: monetary costs and travel times; reliability of MoS routes; availability of MoS routes; MoS routes frequencies; but it resulted from the interviews that monetary costs and travel times are the most important factors considered by trucking companies in the modal and route choice. This study has also shown that an improvement of MoS routes on the Italian Adriatic side is necessary: actually, a strong reason for which in Italy MoS traffic is still a small percentage of road traffic is the low number of MoS routes currently in operation and their low frequency. This analysis could help decision makers, and maritime operators, to efficiently invest in the improvement of MoS routes. Moreover, this analysis, developed for an Italian case study, can be applied to other European and Mediterranean scenarios.

This paper makes an overview on modern roundabouts design and practice. Modern roundabout have become an issue of great interest over the last decade in Italy. This fact is partially drawn on the great success of roundabout traffic solutions in some European countries, where intersections design practice has changed in consequence of the performances gained with roundabouts and their general good acceptance by drivers. Modern roundabouts can have significant impacts and benefits in terms of circulation safety, delays and capacity. These quoted items form as many sections of the paper.

In Italy, over the past fifteen years, modern, or second generation roundabouts have become very popular. In these roundabouts, entering vehicles must yield to vehicles already within the circle. This modern design provides for much higher capacity of operation. Although first implemented in the UK in the 1960s, it took twenty years for the second generation to begin to spread to other European countries. Between 1987 and 2002, in particular, Germany, France and Switzerland conducted research that led to standards techniques that, along with English ones, now comprise the major technical references. The causes of the delay in implementation are uncertain and the subject of much speculation. The United States has only recently begun implementation, as it was not until the 1998 version did a chapter on roundabouts appear in the Highway Capacity Manual (developed further in the 2000 edition). In Italy, the first standards were proposed for the 1993 New Road Code, but it was not until 2004 that the standards were passed through national legislation. However, these codes are approximate and inadequate, and lack elementary technical foundations (see for instance Art. 4.5 of D.M. 19/04/2006, no.1699). A quick calculation for 4 legs and 60 meters diameter is sufficient to demonstrate its failure and infeasibility. The design of a roundabout, like that of any other road element, should be based on principles of safety, and should be deployed in a systemic context that combines geometric characteristics to meet capacity requirements – the perception of road space is also important. When designing a roundabout, the engineer should consider simultaneously both safety factors and capacity. But in addition to using geometric standards, formulas and models, aspects of perception and visual appeal should be considered

In this study, an analysis of deep sea shipping (DSS) container services, calling at Italian ports, is carried out. A comparison with analogous sets of data collected in the years 2011 and 2014 has been performed. The most important Italian port system is the Ligurian one, which includes the main Italian port, Genoa, which is the main access gate to the Padan Plain, the most productive area of Italy. However, other ports are also important: the Ligurian port of La Spezia and the hub port of Gioia Tauro. The comparison, with 2011 and 2014 data, has shown that while the number of DSS departures, from Italian ports, did not increase, the dimensions of the ships, which call at Italian ports, increased relevantly: this is in line with the current trend in container ship gigantism.

Private car mobility registers today a high accident rate and around 70% of the overall CO2 emissions from transport were generated by road mode split (European Commission, 2016). Moreover, in urban areas they occur 38% of the overall fatalities from road transport, and 23% of the overall CO2 emissions (European Commission, 2013). As a result, a modal shift of at least a part of passenger transport in urban areas, from private car to sustainable transport systems is desirable. This research aims to promote sustainable mobility through two mutually reinforcing "main actions": firstly, there is a rewarding Open-Source platform, named as GOOD_GO; secondly, there is the SW/HW system connecting to the wide world of private and/or shared bicycles. Through the GOOD_GO platform Web portal and App, a user enters a so called 'social rewarding game' thought to incentive sustainable mobility habits, and gets access to the second item consisting of a system to disincentive bike-theft and based on the passive RFID technology. The low-cost deterrent bike-theft and bike monitoring/tracking system is functional to bring a big number of citizens inside the rewarding game. In 2018, a pilot test has implemented in the city of Livorno (Tuscany, It), and it involved around 1,000 citizens. Results were quite encouraging and today, the cities of Livorno, Pisa and Bolzano will enlarge the incentive system both to home-to-school and home-to-work mobility. The Good_Go platform is an actual M-a-a-S (Mobility-as-a-Service) application, and it becoming a Mobility Management decision system support, jointly with the opportunity of organizing more incentive tenders and rewarding systems types.