SMARTforCITY Numero uno

TECHNOLOGY
Beliefs about smart
mobility in the
Metropolitan City
of Cagliari:
Findings from
a focus group study
by Sara Manca, Francesca Tirotto, Nicola Mura, Ferdinando Fornara
The field of sustainable mobility
has recently received great
attention in the European Union
agenda, through the promotion
and support of actions aimed to
an efficient urban development
(Ettema, Friman, & Gärling, 2014).
Data concerning emissions of CO2
have showed an increase of 85%
from 1973 to 2007 and, in spite
of the thresholds set by the Kyoto
Protocol, a growth of over 47%
during the 1990-2007 period (United
Nations Human Settlements
Programme, 2014).
METHOD
Participants
Participants (N = 16) were residents
in the metropolitan area of the city
of Cagliari. In order to figure out and
deepen the beliefs of both public
transport users and car users, two
separated focus groups were led for
each of the two users’ categories.
Procedure
The focus group technique (Stewart
& Shamdasani, 1990; Zamuner, 2003)
was used for data collection. A focus
group is a group of interacting individuals
having some common interests
or characteristics, brought together by
a moderator, who uses the group and
its interaction as a way to gain deep
information about a specific topic.
Typically, a focus group consists of
6-10 people who are unfamiliar with
each other. The moderator has the
role to encourage different points of
view, without pressuring participants
(Krueger, 1988). The duration of each
focus group was about 1 hour.
The moderator welcomed the participants,
gave an overview of the
topic and laid out the ground rules.
Participants were encouraged to talk
spontaneously, and follow-up questions
were used to facilitate further
discussion of salient issues.
The interview covered an array of
questions related to specific topics
such as architectonics and functional
aspects, perceived safety, and overall
satisfaction toward transportation
experiences.
The extent to which each issue was
explored was dependent upon its
importance for the participants. A
content analysis (Krippendorf, 2004)
was performed on the two focus
group transcripts. Two independent
judges were recruited to code each
focus group discussion on the basis of
categories definition, identifying the
24 SMARTforCITY - Numero 1 2019