Karlsruhe Institute of Technology: Small adjustments, big impact: Researchers are investigating the potential of public transport in the future
“Every kilometer saved in car traffic helps in times of climate change, high fuel prices and the desired independence from foreign energy supplies. There is good savings potential in the combination of public transport with other means of transport,” says Dr. Martin Kagerbauer from the Institute for Transportation (IfV) of the KIT. In the “regiomove” project, the Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund (KVV) is creating a network of the various mobility offers digitally via an app and in the form of mobility hubs – i.e. stations where users can switch between the means of transport as easily as possible.
Sharing and pooling must be possible across the board
The researchers have modeled whether and how this works best in different future scenarios of the entire mobility network in traffic demand simulations: “Sharing and pooling offers can help to ensure that public transport is used better – but only if they are really available nationwide,” says Kagerbauer. “At the moment, however, only up to ten percent of the population – depending on the region – have access to such offers,” adds Tim Wörle from the IfV. If this share could be increased to 20 percent through further dissemination of the various sharing services, also in the region, their share of traffic volume could almost triple. “The new offers will then still play a minor role in the total volume of traffic,
No competition with public transport
The researchers’ scenarios also make it clear that the new mobility offers are almost never in competition with public transport or other environmentally friendly means of transport such as one’s own bicycle. On the contrary: “Local public transport, which currently accounts for around twelve percent of the total traffic volume in the Karlsruhe region, benefits from the doubling of sharing and pooling offers with slight growth tendencies, which can also be observed with bicycles,” says Wörle. “If it were also possible to reduce travel times by bus and train in local transport by ten percent, an increase in public transport journeys of six percent can be expected.” As a result, the share of cars in traffic volume in Karlsruhe and the surrounding area will decrease .