Come find out the most efficient ways to get around Rome sustainably in 2022. Written by Siegfriedy Andrade, a young traveler who has been discovering every inch of Rome for the past three months and has been sharing her findings through her articles.
Table of Contents
- Intro
- Electric Scooters
- Electric Bikes
- Electric Buses
- Electric Mopeds
Intro
As the world evolves into a more and more modern reality and tries to fix the mistakes of the past which led to climate change. Many societies are now switching up and adjusting some of their everyday actions, finding a way to make them more environmentally friendly. The Eternal City of Rome is no different. For being one of the most visited cities in the world, Rome’s transportation is one of the city’s fundamental pillars for both the locals and the tourists. Rome receives from 7 to 10 million tourists annually, being the second most visited city in Europe (only losing to Paris), and finding a way to transport such large amounts of people in a sustainable way has been one of the city’s missions for a while now.
Electric Scooters
Electric scooters have been taking over the world by storm in the past few years. They are the go-to in big and touristy cities because they are relatively cheap and easy to access and can get you from point A to point B quickly and people also find it fun to ride on. Since the summer of 2020, the streets of Rome have been flooded with electric scooters from all sorts of brands, such as Lime, Bird, Helbiz, Wire, and others. With the city’s traffic and narrow streets, and the rise of the search for more sustainable alternatives for transportation, these e-scooters, or as the Italians call them, “monopattino”, are an excellent choice for those enjoying their vacation time in the city.
Electric Bikes
Coming close to e-scooters, electric bikes are also considered a go-to for those spending some time in the city. They are easy to find, and like the e-scooters are relatively cheap and accessible. The bikes can go a bit faster and due to their electric motor, they are not as hard and tiring to ride, but rather quite enjoyable. In contrast to electronic scooters, e-bikes are now being used as a means of transport for experiences. There are many tours being offered around the city which use e-bikes for transportation. The main brands of electronic bikes in Rome are Lime (Uber), Dott, and Tier.
Electric buses
As far as public transportation goes, such as buses, the city is still working on switching more lines to electric. That being said, there are a few lines such as the 100, which are composed of little electric buses that run through the city, facilitating people get closer to the city center in a more sustainable way. With funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), Rome’s transport company ATAC has also created a smart bus for line 64, which has been running for about a year now as a test that could change the future for electric buses in Rome.
Electric mopeds
Another alternative for sustainable transportation is the rental of electric mopeds. There are two ways someone visiting the city could rent one of these. The first one, there are storefronts that physically deal with the rentals and have deals such as 24-hour rentals, 3-day rentals, and even a week-long rental, which in all of them the visitor would get to keep the moped for the whole time. The other way would be the one we are all so familiar with, which would be the same process as for the e-bike and the e-scooter, where you use an online platform to rent the moped to go from point A to point B. Different from the previous transportation methods that the rental takes place online, for the moped to be rented either online or at a storefront there needs to be a verification of one’s driver’s license, which is not needed for any of the other means mentioned in this article.
Want to find out in what other ways the city of Rome is a sustainable destination?
Here are some other articles that will tell you all about it:
• Sustainable Activities in Rome
• A Sustainable Itinerary in Roma
By Siegfriedy Andrade
