Home–University Travel Plan for Sustainable Mobility: A Comparative Study Between the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Calabria

One of the most crucial aspects of urban planning is transport, which allows access to different land uses and mobility within the metropolitan area. However, because they are linked to sustainable development, transport networks have a detrimental impact on economic, social, and environmental factors. To date, there are many regulatory instruments in place that promote the green economy and aim to limit the excessive use of natural resources. Many municipalities are adopting “Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans” with the aim of redesigning areas and traffic flows in cities and encouraging public transport use to reduce urban pollution and make cities more livable. In Italy, moreover, the figure of the mobility manager has been introduced for companies and public bodies whose task is to optimize the systematic travel of their organization’s employees through the drafting and adoption of the Home–University Travel Plan (HUTP), which is a document whose main objective is to incentivize the use of sustainable forms of mobility by defining specific measures that positively impact the community. Mobility management, therefore, emerges as a fundamental approach to developing and implementing strategies to ensure people’s mobility in an efficient manner in relation to social, environmental, and energy-saving purposes. Following these considerations, this paper presents the development of an HUTP for the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece, based on a work already carried out for the University of Calabria (Italy), and a comparative study between these two HUTPs follows. The choice to draft such plans does not respond to regulatory requirements but to a desire to contribute to the paradigm shift required by the new forms of mobility in the university campuses, which represent an attractive pole of considerable importance on the urban and regional territory. The initiatives to foster sustainable forms of mobility described in this document are also identified considering the Sustainable Development Goals, approved by the United Nations and outlined in Agenda 2030, with the aim also of promoting actions to improve the livability of the territory, ensure inclusion, increase collective well-being and increase the sensitivity of the entire academic community to the issue of sustainability.