Sustainable transport

Sustainable mobility is a political concept that like to go as a sustainable, environmentally sound, socially acceptable and unfallarm designated travel modes walking, cycling and use of public transport (see also environmental network ) wants to promote.

Representative of a gentle mobility regarded as a cause for the development of traffic and infrastructure ( spatial distribution of mobility destinations such as work, housing, shopping, leisure facilities, recreational areas, ... ) mainly transport policy and transport planning. Therefore Consequently, they demand of the transport policy and planning, to intervene in the development of traffic and infrastructure and to control so that unnecessary traffic is avoided and Needful traffic can be handled in a very high proportion over gentle mobility. In contrast, see a representative of a "conventional" transport policy and planning the development of traffic as largely unalterable: is for them the task of transport policy and planning is to comply with existing or projected traffic volume ( denoted as by road construction and decommissioning as unprofitable public transport ).

• 4.1 Germany
• 4.2 Austria
• 4.3 Switzerland

Development of mobility

In the second half of the 20th century, the motorized individual transport (MIT ) and freight transport has grown strong on the road compared to the gentle mobility types. The following table shows the development of volume in billion passenger-km or tonne-kilometer billion per year for the different modes of transport is:

For example, the car transport performance grew in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1960 to 1990 to 3.7 times ( 270 %); In the same period the traffic rose by only 9 % in public transport; Freight transportation by truck increased to 5-fold ( 400 % ), while the transport of goods by rail increased by only 11 %.

The length of the road network took in Austria from 1960 to 1990 by 25%, while the length of the railway network decreased by 5%; in the Federal Republic of Germany took in the period from 1950 to 1980, the total road network by 33 % to ( motorway network by 242 %), while the rail network decreased by 22%.

The cost of mobility also developed for the benefit of motor vehicle traffic: while in Germany from 1980 to 1994, fuel prices increased less than the cost of living, the rail fares for passengers and goods increased more than the cost of living on. The real price ( adjusted for inflation based on the cost of living index, relative to 2001) of a liter of regular gasoline fell in Austria in the period 1955 to 2001 from 1.38 to 0.90 euros ( - 35 %); In 1973, he reached a low of 0.78 euros, while in 1981 he attained a peak value of 1.20 euro.

The strong increase of vehicle traffic affects the quality of life of many people by exhaust gases, noise and limitation in the non-motorized mobility. In Austria in 1998, almost two thirds of people felt strongly or very strongly affected by the traffic noise of the MIV, but only 9 % by traffic noise of iron or trams. Transport fear means a serious interference in the everyday life. 1998 there were almost eight times as many people died on the roads in Germany killed as by crime offenses.

In residential areas, there is the majority of public land from roads and parking spaces for cars, while only a small part of soft mobility in the form of sidewalks, traffic-free roads ( pedestrian ) and squares, parks, bike paths, public bicycles, bus lanes and tram routes available. In Austria, for example, 94% of the total area occupied by the road to be taken from the road, this includes in addition to the motorized transport and non-motorized individual transport.

Causes and mechanisms of action

Some scholars such as Winfried Wolf, Hermann Knoflacher, Heiner Monheim or Frederic Vester have the mechanisms for these developments are analyzed and, inter alia, laid down the following propositions:

Sided lobbying

Sided lobbying for the MIV in transport policy and planning was largely responsible for the promotion of MIV at the expense of other modes of transport from the beginning.

Until the 1920s, the use of the whole road by all road users, especially pedestrians was common and legitimate. Pedestrians were not only on the road, they also stayed and used the road as a habitat. With the advent of automobile traffic, motorists began to claim the road for itself, which sometimes caused violent protests: "Where the motorist takes the right road, as he boasts to master that but not him, but the entire population belongs, this to obstruct at every turn and her to dictate behavior that he should call only on their own, private roads? " Although motorists were a small minority of road users at that time, to the detriment could the present in the majority of pedestrians and cyclists traffic laws are created: the pedestrians were banished to the curb from now, and were allowed to enter for crossing the road only, and only in appropriate parts and then only if they thereby hindering any motorist. Markus Schmidt calls this " built-in way" as the key for the subsequent massive increase in the MIV. In the 1930s, translated in Germany a first car-oriented transformations of cities by road breakthroughs and demolitions for parking and increased regulation of the total traffic in favor of cars. To date, transport policy has been largely determined by those who drive themselves most car so that the other modes are neglected. Example, it is believed to have doubled the travel times for pedestrians since the beginning of the introduction of more and more traffic lights in the 1960s. The following example from Linz shows how, despite promises of politicians to do something about the increase in the MIV, yet the MIV is preferred in the allocation of resources: although it was planned by the transport policy to reduce HIV- share to 43 % by 2010 (in 2001: 61%) and to increase the share of cycling from 6% to 14%, will be issued in 1995 and 2010 about 62 % of total transport expenditure on the development of vehicle traffic, but less than 1% for bicycle traffic. From a conspiracy against the rail traffic reflects a 1974 written on behalf of the U.S. Senate study: more than three decades until then had been bought up well functioning rail-mounted electric transport in countless major U.S. cities by a consortium of companies in the oil and automobile industries, decommissioned and replaced by bus companies. A devastating deterioration of air and quality of life was inter alia the result.

Law of Time Konstanz

The faster the movement possible, the longer the traveled path: if a route is traveled, only the decision of time is not the distance. For speed increases thus resulting no gain in time, but only a spatial extension.

The zusehende expansion of the road network, but also the construction of high -speed railways are key causes for the thinning of the infrastructure and the associated increase of distance path lengths.

Supply creates demand

The expansion of the road system causes an increase in traffic.

The closing of highway gaps caused, for example, repeatedly enormous growth rates in road transit traffic, as well as the upgrading of existing roads. In a UPI study bypass roads are referred to as " in most cases counterproductive pseudo-solutions ", where " taking into account the Neubelastungen by the ring-road, the overall balance is often not positive ": noise, emissions and number and severity of accidents increase due to the increase in car traffic and driving speeds. For example, the Vienna Southeast tangent was built as a relief highway for one with 20,000 vehicles per day busy inner city street; in the first year after the opening fell there, the traffic to 7,000 vehicles per day, while he was but ten years later rose again to 24,000, and on the relief motorway 100,000 vehicles per day were counted.

According to a UPI - study expands today, " the number of cars about nine times faster than the road network. Even if in the future nine times and nine times as fast as new roads would be built as before, so that now caused traffic jams and congestion in the road network could be maintained even at the present level! "

Conversely, it is at a reduction of the road network mostly to a decline in traffic. As about the Donnersbergerbrücke was renovated in Munich in March 1993, it was feared "permanent congestion without end " because the bridge with 150,000 cars a day at the busiest flyovers Europe counts. But the opposite was the case: Although the bridge could be several months operating only two lanes, the automotive arm came mostly fast forward. Counts showed that daily 32,000 cars were traveling less than otherwise. On the parallel routes only 25,000 cars were counted more so that the total traffic decreased by 7,000 vehicles. A similar case in Frankfurt shows how strong modal choice may be influenced by the environment, " had to be as a centrally located Main Bridge, the Untermainbrücke, renewed and the motor vehicle traffic for a year was not available, increased as expected ridership on the parallel the river crossing subway route to strong .... After reopening the Untermainbrücke the motor vehicle traffic but no longer a barrier Inntalautobahn in July 1990 increased to the previous level at. " Due to a sagging bridge at Kufstein caused against all expectations, no collapse of the economy. " The motorists found it suddenly did not seem so necessary to stand together hundreds of thousands at the same hour in traffic in front burner".

Although for decades and over again the " gridlock " was predicted, the total collapse of road traffic never joined because adapt to road users to the limited capacity of the road network.

Lack of true costs

When considering the overall economic and environmental costs of MIV and truck traffic only covers a fraction of the costs caused by him; the deficit of the public transport proves to be significantly lower than that of the MIV and truck traffic in this aspect. This lack of true costs leads according to market laws in a disproportionate development of MIV and truck traffic.

Through the construction and maintenance of roads arise so-called infrastructure costs (including internal costs, and infrastructure costs ); Moreover caused by environmental pollution, surface loads and accidents economic costs, which are called external costs, which are in contrast to the internal costs are usually not alone borne by the public by the polluter, but.

A comparison of infrastructure costs for motor vehicle traffic with the revenue from motor vehicle and petroleum in the Federal Republic of Germany in the period 1960 to 1989 results, according to a UPI study a deficit of DM 106 billion, while the DB in the same period a deficit of about DM 30 billion generated (both calculated without interest and principal payments on existing debt ). The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW ) is a study in 1985 estimates that " the maintenance costs for local and state roads in the amount of 231 billion DM (151 West 80 East) completely uncovered by the year 2010" was.

A calculation of the external costs of motor vehicle traffic in the Federal Republic of Germany results for 1989 that the external costs of increased infrastructure costs are about 6.5 times as high as the internal costs (1996 according times as high ;) if the external costs on the polluter pays principle would also be covered through fuel taxes, as would a liter of fuel about 3.50 euros cost (as of 1994, according to CPI developments in 2006 about 4 euros ). The following table shows the annual and average external costs of transport in the EU-17 countries in 2000 (excluding congestion costs ):

The external costs per passenger-kilometer ( pkm ) are for rail transport about one-third for buses and about half of the external costs of car transport; 226 euro per 1,000 pkm, the motorcycle traffic due to its high accident costs by far, the highest external costs. When freight external costs (per tonne-kilometers ) of road about 4 to 14 times greater than at the track. Overall, the annual external costs of private transport and truck transport amount to almost 20 times the external cost of public transport and rail freight transport. In air transport, the high external costs are caused by the strong impact of carbon dioxide emissions at high altitude on climate change. For aircraft turbine fuel kerosene and diesel fuel for inland navigation must neither a mineral nor a tax to be paid ( see, eg, fuel tax ).

Increasing inefficiency of traffic

Despite the high increase in traffic no longer human mobility needs are met.

The combination of the reasons listed in the preceding theses causes in addition to the increase in traffic at the same time an increase of the transport paths, so that a total of approximately constant use efficiency decreases significantly.

For example, participated in the Federal Republic of Germany, the number of paths per capita per year in the period 1960-1982 from 920 to 960 only slightly, while the average path length but increased from 6.2 to 11.0 km. The 1963 traffic volume reached is considered sufficient to meet the needs of human mobility. The consequences of increased transport routes in passenger are centralization, urban sprawl, an areal decay of the village structure and culture and the loss of local supply and employment in rural areas.

The growth of freight transport is " to a large extent the result of a too far-reaching social division of labor, which was only made possible by artificially low transport costs ", so 1990 is already 4/5 of the distance goods transport were deemed unnecessary. Semi-finished products are transported partly over long distances, rather than to achieve high manufacturing depth by choosing a suitable site. For example, "Bacon transported from Belgium and the Netherlands to South Tyrol, there with the stamp" is geselcht in South Tyrol " provided to as" Speck Alto Adige " to be returned to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc. managed. " Through just -in-time concept is transferred to the road, the storage space of operations. Export subsidies generate a significant portion of traffic movements that would otherwise hardly any economic background.

Strategies for sustainable mobility

This strategies have been developed, such as the development of transport in favor of a smooth mobility and a higher quality of life can be changed: a transport policy, the gentle mobility promotes, trying to attraktivieren through actions and investments the transport of soft mobility, and it is also necessary, the remaining Vehicles ( MIV, truck, air traffic ) not to further promote and taxation (eg increase of fuel taxes to internalize the external costs ( environmental tax) eco-bonus system, parking management, city tolls ) and restrictions (such as truck ban on night driving, speed limits, porter lights) to reduce. At the same time they must also change the distribution of the areas in public space in favor of soft mobility, such as traffic calming and road decommissioning. Last but not least, such a transport policy must be active in municipal politics, engage spatial and urban planning to achieve in settlement areas high qualities of life at the same time short distances, and thus to prevent urban sprawl of surrounding land.

Organizations to promote soft mobility in German-speaking

Germany

• ADFC - represents the interests of cyclists
• FOOT V. - represents the interests of pedestrian
• Human Powered Vehicles - Germany (HPV )
• Traffic Club Germany (VCD)
• Bicycle - yourself workshops, such as Bike Kitchens

Austria

• RADLOBBY Austria - represents the interests of cyclists
• Club passenger - represents the interests of public transport users
• Traffic Club Austria ( VCÖ )

Switzerland

• Club Car Free the Switzerland, CAS
• Future Bike Switzerland
• Pro Velo Switzerland - represents the interests of cyclists
• Traffic Club of Switzerland (VCS )
• UmverkehR