“We’re born arsonists and end up firefighters.” If there’s even a grain of truth in this Italian aphorism by Pitigrilli, perhaps we need to take a step back and take a fresh look at the standard narrative of the generation gap. “We’re born arsonists and end up firefighters.” If there’s even a grain of truth in this aphorism by the Italian writer Pitigrilli, perhaps we need to take a step back and take a fresh look at the standard narrative of the generation gap.
Generation Z includes people born from 1997 to 2012 (the so-called Centennials), some of whom are currently embarking on careers and starting families. As digital natives who keep pace with the challenges of today’s world, they will lead us straight into the revolution of growth and sustainable consumption, or at least so says the stereotype.
Yet from a report by the at SDA Bocconi entitled Gen Z and Future Urban Mobility, we get a somewhat different story. The aim is to gain a clearer understanding of the different attitudes toward urban mobility, comparing Gen Z to Gen Y, the cohort which came just before (people born between 1981 and 1996). In this context, though, the report primarily highlights how this attitude evolves as individuals transition through the different stages in their lives.
Specifically, as Centennials begin to enter the job market and start having children, their attitudes tend to resemble their big brothers and sisters more and more. If up till now they prioritized the environment and sustainability, when restrictions inherent to these choices become increasingly constraining, what reappears is a strong demand for flexibility.
As Centennials begin to enter the job market and start having children, their attitudes tend to resemble their big brothers and sisters more and more. If up till now they prioritized the environment and sustainability, when restrictions inherent to these choices become increasingly constraining, what reappears is a strong demand for flexibility. That means moving by car is still the winning option, and typical downsides of electric vehicles are not negligible.
But even granted all this, Centennials still set the highest bar on the environment, and are truly the most sensitive to environmental concerns. Also true is that sustainability and flexibility can be combined in an innovative urban mobility offering.
This generation pays particular attention to limited resources, and they are keenly aware that not only time is a scarce and precious resource - space is too. Of course, time is precious because they’d like to spend it with friends and loved ones (meeting people in person, defying the digital native stereotype), and sitting in a traffic jam is, by definition, a waste of time. But space is essential too, in particular in urban settings where journeys are increasingly congested, and the flexibility of having your own vehicle to drive clashes with the problem of finding a place to park it.
So Centennials want everything to be close at hand – or should we say, close on foot? Family, friends, services, and work would all ideally be walkable, and these young people are willing to walk quite a long way. The model that emerges is no longer the 15-minute city (in other words, where everything is within range of a 15-minute walk, at most), already old news; instead it’s almost always 20 if not even 30 minutes. And this allows us to imagine a polycentric city, made to measure for pedestrians, where people no longer need cars in their daily routines.
So now we come to Gen Z’s sensitivity to alternative mobility solutions, which they choose on a case by case basis, carefully weighing the pros and cons, without prejudice but also without strong preferences one way or another.
Walking, micro-mobility, sharing, pooling, public transportation, or your own car: none of these solutions is the clear winner at the moment. Obviously, for Gen Z future mobility must be zero emissions, but that’s not enough. They need solutions that enable them to avoid wasting time (once they’re done using their chosen mode of transport, they can simply leave it and walk away), and that don’t take up too much space for parking.
This is where the most promising technological enabler could be self-driving vehicles. What could be more flexible than a zero-emissions taxi that you don’t have to recharge or park? What could be a simpler way to move from A to B? People would be willing to pay for the service. To meet the needs of Gen Z, and likely of the rest of us too.
For fully autonomous cars - Level 5 - you only need to power up the system and input your destination. They’re being tested, but only in Asia. And for now, only for transporting goods. How will Western society strike a balance between risk management, the vast investments required, and the desire to satisfy a clear need for citizen consumers?
