The Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning

Research Project: Concepts for future urban traffic

Results

The results of the studies and their reflection with experts show that cities and municipalities derive their transport planning concepts from the objectives of urban development planning and increasingly understand them as continuous plans, which are regularly updated and supplemented with concrete and realistic measures. Numerous concepts show close links between urban development and traffic planning. For the step-by-step and integrated approach, politically agreed goals are indispensable, which can also be used to measure local transport policy. Overall, there seems to be currently a good time for new transport concepts in the municipalities. There is also a growing willingness among citizens as well as many local political actors to engage with new concepts in the transport sector and implement them in the public sphere.

In the phase of the implementation it is favourable to refer overarching goals as tangibly and visually as possible to a place. This need not necessarily be the city centre, which is in the focus of very different and highly competitive interests. From a transport as well as an urban planning point of view, there are equally great opportunities for redesigning and qualifying public spaces in the district centres or peripheral districts. For this purpose municipalities use methods of visualisation and piloting more and more frequently, as well as forms of temporary transformation. Many cities claim the lack of sufficient personnel and knowledge as well as the existing financial and legal framework.

Therefore, the design of the future urban traffic cannot be left alone in the hands of cities and municipalities, even if in many current traffic concepts future topics such as Electric mobility, digitalisation and climate change are taken up. The Federal Government and the states have an equally important role to play. The mutual dialogue between the three levels as well as an integrated view in the design of financial and promotional funds or the legal framework are key demands of cities and communities.

The transformation of urban transport requires a broader political and social consensus. The necessity, but also the chances of the change can only be communicated if the design of processes also takes on a special importance and a variety of forms of information, communication and moderation are used. These "soft" measures will determine whether push and pull measures can be accepted and debates about future urban traffic can be balanced. The complex challenges of urban transport require more than just technical solutions.

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