8. Mobility
Access, Car Dependence and Visitor Movement
Mobility shapes how visitors enter Sardinia, move around the island and experience its landscapes, towns, beaches and protected areas. It also affects emissions, congestion, public-space quality, resident access to services, road safety and the viability of less-visited inland communities.
As an island, Sardinia depends heavily on air and sea connections. In 2024, its airports handled 10.56 million line and charter passengers, while Sardinian ports handled more than 6.5 million passengers and almost 685,000 cruise passengers. These figures measure passenger movements rather than tourist arrivals, and they include residents, workers and other travellers. Nevertheless, they illustrate the scale of seasonal external-access demand.[regione.sardegna][unionesarda]
Internal mobility is more difficult. Much of Sardinia’s tourism economy remains dependent on private cars, particularly outside major urban areas and beyond the main transport corridors. This reflects the island’s dispersed settlement pattern, varied terrain, long travel distances, seasonal accommodation distribution and the limited practicality of public transport for some visitor itineraries.
Car dependence creates several destination-management issues:
- Peak-season road congestion around high-demand beaches, towns, ports and airports.
- Parking pressure near sensitive coastal and protected areas.
- Higher emissions and air pollution from visitor travel.
- Safety risks on narrow rural or coastal roads.
- Reduced quality of public space for residents and visitors.
- Unequal access for people without private vehicles.
- Pressure to create new road and parking infrastructure in ecologically sensitive areas.
| Mobility system | Destination opportunity | Main risk or constraint |
|---|---|---|
| Airports | International connectivity and market access | Emissions, seasonal peaks and reliance on aviation routes |
| Ferries and ports | Essential island access and vehicle transport | Traffic concentration, port-area pollution and onward car dependence |
| Roads | Flexible access to dispersed places | Congestion, parking pressure, emissions and landscape fragmentation |
| Rail and public transport | Potential lower-impact travel on defined corridors | Network coverage, frequency, integration and visitor usability |
| Walking | Low-impact access to towns, landscapes and local experiences | Heat exposure, safety, path quality and access design |
| Cycling | Tourism diversification, lower-carbon mobility and rural connectivity | Route continuity, road safety, services, weather and intermodality |
| Electric mobility | Lower tailpipe emissions and potential local benefits | Charging coverage, grid capacity and continued reliance on private vehicles |
| Marine transport | Access to islands and coastal destinations | Fuel use, wake, noise and pressure on sensitive marine locations |
Sardinia has a Regional Cycling Mobility Plan, approved in 2018, which identifies approximately 1,900 kilometres of regional cycle routes. The plan is intended to support cycling for everyday travel as well as tourist and recreational use, connecting ports and airports with natural, landscape, cultural and historic assets.[keep][sardegnaciclabile]
The plan has significant potential. Cycling can support longer stays, lower-impact travel, dispersal to inland areas, small-town services and local businesses. Yet cycling infrastructure alone does not guarantee sustainable tourism. Routes need safe design, maintenance, shade, water access, signage, public transport integration, accommodation and repair services. They must also avoid transferring pressure to sensitive habitats or creating conflict on rural roads.
The central principle is that sustainable mobility is not simply about replacing petrol cars with electric cars. It is about reducing unnecessary vehicle movement, making public and active travel practical, managing access to high-pressure sites and improving the relationship between visitor mobility and resident quality of life.
For highly sensitive beaches, coves, islands and protected areas, this may mean seasonal shuttle services, timed parking, booking systems, park-and-ride, walking routes, bike hire, electric local transport or restrictions on private-car access. For inland areas, it may mean connecting rail, buses, cycle routes and local experiences so that visitors can travel without needing to use a car for every journey.
The appropriate solution will vary by place. The aim is not to eliminate private-car access across Sardinia, but to ensure that mobility supports ecological protection, climate goals, accessibility, visitor experience and community well-being rather than undermining them.