Territorial Governance and Mobility Management. A Smart Perspective for an Alpine City

A rapid change has traversed local territories, which have been involved in globalization dynamics, in supra-local connections, and in wider processes of governance rescaling. These latter have implied the shift of competencies from national states to the European Union, on the one hand, and to regional authorities on the other; from the public domain to a variety of market actors. Mobility is part of this process, due to the larger scale involved, which breaks down the consolidated administrative borders, and because the traditional public transport systems, state-owned, have been substituted by a plurality of companies, both public and private. In regard to mobility, the stress is usually placed on the infrastructure; yet management is the key issue, because the governance of a complex system, responding to a variety of demands and composed of a plurality of actors, must be flexible and based on cooperation. And this requires a sound information basis and control mechanisms. The paper addresses these issues by referring to the case of the alpine regions along the Brenner corridor, and in particular to the city of Trento. Different scales interact, from the European one to the national, regional, and local ones. A smart perspective can capitalize on a variety of good practices developed in the regions involved, but it must overcome certain obstacles which hinder innovation. The appropriate use of knowledge and ICT technologies can be pivotal in supporting the re-organisation of mobility systems, appropriately connecting the different scales involved and stimulating the diverse actors to cooperate.