Smart mobility: a comparison between the social media strategies for the public urban mobility services of Rome and Bucharest

Abstract

The rapid development of cities, along with the growth of urban population, has brought up many challenges for the organization of human urban mobility in the most sustainable and smart way. The high need for modern arrangements of citizens’ movement leads to the necessity for searching alternative solutions to develop urban transportation systems and increase satisfaction of passengers, as well as modern and user-friendly social channels to provide always updated and useful information to citizens and visitors, at any time and in any place it is required. Objectives The main objective of the paper is to analyze to what extend social media platforms stand in as a communication tool for public transportation companies and increase engagement of passengers to the process of mobility systems development, making them active members of a community of information consumers and producers. Prior work The role of social media platforms in urban mobility and the level of satisfaction of citizens with urban mobility services was recently studied by several scholars. However, such a comparative study on two European capital cities concerning this specific topic of interest lacks in the existing literature. Approach This paper presents a comparative analysis concerning the social media strategies of public transportation companies in the urban environment. Empirical analysis is based on two case studies shedding light on the level of development and engagement of passengers on social media platforms in Rome and Bucharest. For this comparison, the collected data were analysed through the SWOT analysis tool in order to clearly highlight the findings and compare the results. Results Our evidence shows that social media platforms should be used by transportation companies to provide two-way communication and use a customers’ feedback as a source for continuous improvement of services and facilities, to be in line with citizens' demands and technology providers. Moreover, beneficiaries being interested to identify a higher level of responsibility. Implications The rapid growth of social media platforms creates various possible future scenarios for the customers’ involvement. Certain gaps in the development of social media strategies in these two cities can become a possible direction for their further evolution in the scientific research as well as for policy making practices. Value The analysis of social media platforms has shown the main growth points for further development of smart mobility in Rome and Bucharest.