Problem Statement

The transport systems of many German metropolitan regions are reaching their limits. The Stuttgart Region is particularly affected due to its geographical location and economic conditions. More than 240,000 people working in Stuttgart come from outside the region, 87,000 people commute from Stuttgart to the surrounding area. The loss of time per car driver is around 108 hours per year. The same applies to lost time due to disruptions in public transport. This means that Stuttgart has been one of the cities with the highest congestion rates in Germany for years. Since rush hour traffic accounts for about half of all traffic on a working day, a change in behavior on work-related routes can contribute to less traffic and more sustainable urban mobility.

At the same time, flexible forms of work are becoming increasingly important. Due to IT-supported communication and collaboration solutions, more and more companies rely on digitally supported, temporally and spatially flexible forms of work. Traditional office workplaces are increasingly being replaced by flexible work locations. In addition, advances in information and communications technology (ICT) have changed the way we deal with mobility. New mobility concepts (e.g., flexible on-demand services) aim to pool traffic more intelligently (ridepooling) or to improve access to public transportation. These social developments provide a basis for the increased use of spatio-temporally flexible forms of work and new mobility technologies for work-related routes. However, it is still unclear what potential this flexibility in combination with new mobility services actually has for relieving urban transport systems. It is also unclear how changing forms of work and mobility behavior interact and how the potential of mobile work and new mobility concepts can be used by political strategies and concepts to make mobility sustainable.

Objective

The project investigates to what extent traffic relief effects can be achieved through spatio-temporally flexible work and a changed mobility behavior in work-related routes (including the use of new mobility technologies) and - if this is the case - what design options can be made available to municipal actors from transport and urban policy to achieve a reduction of commuter traffic in core cities, a higher quality of life for commuters and residents, and other sustainability effects.

Methode

The project contributes in many ways to the development of a more sustainable urban mobility: It will determine the potential for the use of spatio-temporal flexible forms of work in connection with sustainable mobility systems at companies in the Stuttgart Region. The associated change in behavior will be tested and discussed in real life experiments with the affected working population. In the microscopic traffic demand model mobiTopp these behavioural changes are implemented and the potentials of traffic relief are quantified. These potentials are then evaluated using a socio-economic sustainability analysis tool and the results are consolidated in a dialog with representatives of regional companies, transport and urban policy and infrastructure planning. Finally, these results will be transferred into corporate as well as urban and transport policy strategies to reduce traffic congestion on work-related routes.

Within the framework of the project, the Institute for Transport Studies (IfV) is developing a suitable survey concept to establish a link between spatio-temporally flexible forms of work and traffic behavior. Based on the resulting data, IfV is developing a microscopic travel demand model for the Stuttgart Region. The model mobiTopp developed at the IfV will be used for this purpose. It will be extended within the framework of the project such that different (flexible) forms of work are adequately represented and their effects on the transport system can be depicted.