New Light Vehicles’ Solutions for Active, Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Mobility of Older Users

The strategies of the European Green Deal highlight the importance of decarbonizing the transport sector, encouraging the transition through sustainable mobility models to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Among the solutions that emerged as promising alternatives to traditional urban mobility, which contribute to improving the health of urban environments, is micro-mobility, which includes a wide range of light vehicles, such as e-bikes and e-scooters. However, the vehicles currently offered are more attractive for a young target, and not very suitable for satisfying the needs of a wider range of users, in particular older users. From this perspective, promoting micromobility as a more sustainable solution requires a paradigm shift in light vehicle design, which adopts a “design for inclusion” approach in investigating solutions that meet the needs of different clusters of users. This paper reports the results of research activity conducted in this domain by an academic laboratory, which have led to the development of three design proposals for inclusive, and unisex light vehicles, for people and goods, oriented to promote an active and healthy lifestyle and to improve safety, independence, and efficiency in user mobility at the urban level.