Social Network as Tool for the Evaluation of Sustainable Urban Mobility in Catania (Italy)

The urban transport system is a key element for the sustainable economic and social development of a city. According to the vision embedded in the new Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, citizens have to actively participate in the promotion of the related strategies. They can be involved through traditional questionnaire surveys or through IT tools. Traditional methods are often expensive and time-consuming to collect quality data. Therefore, this paper presents a method to evaluate the sustainability of urban mobility by means of social network analysis. We have found that the material available on social networks (feedbacks to posts published on major relevant sites) can provide a comprehensive picture of the users’ opinions on the urban mobility in Catania. As result of this analysis, we list the main issues affecting Catania mobility and suggest a strategic action plan.