Traffic volume
Study: People rarely drive cars and go on foot more often
Traffic behavior is changing, especially in large cities. People go on foot more often and use the car less, a study shows. Above all, that has a reason.
The car remains the most important means of transport in the country – but it loses importance in cities and large cities in Germany. This shows a comprehensive survey by the Technical University of Dresden on mobility in cities (SRV 2023), which has now been published. Accordingly, the proportion of the paths covered in metropolises decreased from 31 percent in 2018 to 26 percent in 2023.
The smaller the cities and regions examined, the lower the decline. In contrast, in small town, village rooms, the car content of the paths covered, on the other hand, increased slightly.
People go on foot more often
Where less car is driven, people often walk on foot. In particularly large cities, the proportion of footpaths increased five percentage points to 33 percent. The bike was also easy to grow compared to the previous survey in 2018.
According to the study authors, this has to do this primarily with the effects of corona pandemic, which was still clearly felt in 2023, the year of the current survey. Since then, many people have worked from home more often. Long car journeys to the office have dropped to a large extent.
There was little change in the use of public transport such as bus and train (public transport). Here the proportion remained largely stable in all regions examined. In view of the severe slump in passenger numbers during the Corona crisis, the studymakers emphasize, however.
Women more mobile than men
From the survey, the different mobility behavior of different age groups and the gender also emerges. Accordingly, women between the ages of 30 and 50 are significantly more mobile than men, so they cover more paths average a day. This is mainly related to more complex daily routines that women have to organize: they still take care of children’s transport or purchasing more often.
Overall, mobility in particular has decreased around 20 between 2018 and 2023. However, higher age groups are increasingly mobile. Never stipulated as many people aged 80 and over when they were raised to have a driver’s license as in 2023.
For the study, the TU Dresden interviewed almost 282,000 people across Germany on behalf of numerous cities and municipalities between February 2023 and March 2024. The survey was carried out in around 500 municipalities, 12 regions and 14 federal states. The results are largely coincided with the findings of the study “Mobility in Germany”, which was published at the end of March on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Transport.
dpa
Source: Stern
