2024

Regional Conference "Healthy & Active Mobility"

On November 27, 2024, the regional conference "Healthy & Active Mobility" took place in Bischofshofen. Juliane Stark delivered the keynote speech, "Active on the Move – Living Healthy: Sustainable Transport Concepts for Improved Quality of Life," presenting innovative approaches to how active mobility and health promotion can go hand in hand.

The event brought together experts from politics, administration, academia, and civil society to showcase successful projects from Austria and provide new ideas for creating livable communities.

In addition to engaging presentations, the conference featured a professional excursion, interactive networking opportunities, and information on funding options. Participants discussed how walking and cycling can promote health while simultaneously reducing environmental impact. The event was actively supported by the BMK (Federal Ministry for Climate Action), the BMSGPK (Federal Ministry for Social Affairs, Health, Care, and Consumer Protection), and the FGÖ (Austrian Health Promotion Fund).

Copyrights: BMK/wildbild

6th Federal Congress on Municipal Traffic Safety

For the sixth time, the Austrian Research Association for Road-Rail-Traffic (FSV), in cooperation with BOKU, the Association of Cities, the Association of Municipalities, Kommunal, and Vitronic, is organizing the Federal Congress on Municipal Traffic Safety in Vienna. As in previous years, the event will be moderated by Wolfgang J. Berger.

On Monday, October 21, 2024, the goal is to inform as many people interested in traffic safety as possible about current developments. Representatives from municipalities and cities, as well as planners and government officials, are invited to attend. Students with a particular interest in traffic and traffic safety are also warmly encouraged to participate. As part of the initiative to support young professionals, three students will even have the opportunity to attend for free!

Link to the program/registration:
http://www.fsv.at/cms/default.aspx?ID=8941d125-f470-461b-b883-2a89235f0748

WALK21 Lissabon 2024

The Institute for Transport Studies was represented by Sandra Wegener and Roman Klementschitz, two researchers, at the WALK21 International Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities, held from October 14–18, 2024, in Lisbon, Portugal.

Roman Klementschitz presented the lecture titled "The decision of walking route and selected stop to enter the public transport system," showcasing results from Isabella Messinger's master's thesis.

Sandra Wegener delivered a presentation on the TRA:WELL – Transport & Wellbeing project, titled "Kids on the move. How active mobility can contribute to more physical activity and well-being." Additionally, during the poster session, the TRA:WELL poster by IVe master's students Lisa Werner and Tanja Punz, titled "Paving the Path: Understanding Children's Perspectives on Urban Mobility," was presented.

Links:
https://portugal.walk21.com/en
young-mobility.at

Kickoff for the Traffic Concept 2024/25

As is tradition at the start of the semester in October, the seminar "Development of a Traffic Concept" began. This winter semester, students in two teams will develop innovative ideas for Eisenstadt. The kickoff event featured a full-day field visit, during which City Planning Director, Master Builder DI Werner Fleischhacker—himself a BOKU graduate—welcomed the participants at the "Pulverturm."

Over the coming months, students from three different fields of study will work under the guidance of Assoc. Prof. DI Dr. Michael Meschik and Assoc. Prof. PD DI Dr. Juliane Stark to develop measures to improve traffic in Eisenstadt. The concepts will be presented in the form of posters to the municipal council in January 2025.

6th Information Afternoon on Current Issues in Traffic Planning, Road Design, and Traffic Safety

For the sixth time, the Austrian Research Association for Road-Rail-Traffic (FSV) is organizing the information afternoon "Current Issues in Traffic Planning, Road Design, and Traffic Safety." As in previous years, the topics are intentionally broad, ranging from ramp metering on highways, the green arrow for cyclists, cargo bikes, and e-charging points for bicycles to examples of incorporating climate relevance into planning guidelines.

Wolfgang J. Berger, in his role as head of the FSV Working Group on Planning and Traffic Safety, played a key role in curating the content. He will also deliver a lecture and moderate the event.

Everyone interested in traffic planning and traffic safety, including students, is warmly invited to participate!

When? Monday, June 10, 2024, starting at 1:30 PM in 1040 Vienna

Link to the program/registration

UBRM Field Excursion on Mobility 2024

On Thursday, June 6, 2024, we visited the ASFINAG Traffic Management Center, the depot of the Vienna Local Railways in Inzersdorf, and the Baden mobil project by ÖBB 360° in Baden, together with 24 students.

A big thank you goes to our hosts: ASFINAG, Wiener Lokalbahnen, and ÖBB.

IVe @ WalkSpace 2024

Austrian Specialist Conference for Pedestrians (June 4–5, 2024, Seestadt Aspern)

In 2024, the Austrian Specialist Conference for Pedestrians was held under the theme "Walking: Actively Mobile in the Neighborhood – Transformation of Public Spaces & Livable Street Spaces." The Institute for Transport Studies contributed with three presentations, where Juliane Stark and Sandra Wegener shared results from ongoing and completed projects:

• Does walking make you happy? The connection between active mobility, physical activity, and the well-being of children ("Speed-Dating," exchange & dialogue).
• Street spaces for well-being and active mobility from the perspective of children (Session: Good Practice – School Environment – Actions).
• "Healthy on the move!" – Learnings from health-related mobility projects in the municipal setting from a meta-perspective (Session: Healthy and Active Mobility on Foot and Nudging).

An exciting program with plenty of opportunities for exchange on active mobility!

11th Annual FSV Planning Seminar on Tourism Mobility and the Traffic Transition

On May 23 and 24, 2024, the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) – Endowed Professorship for Digitalization and Automation in the Transport and Mobility System – hosted the 11th annual FSV Planning Seminar in cooperation with the Austrian Research Association for Road-Rail-Traffic (FSV). The event, held at the Hotel Marienhof in Reichenau an der Rax, Lower Austria, was led by Roman Klementschitz and Juliane Stark, with support from Clemens Beyer of the Institute for Spatial Planning, Environmental Planning, and Land Rearrangement. The seminar focused on the topic of tourism mobility in light of the traffic transition and was attended by 40 participants.

The program featured 10 engaging presentations, starting with an overview of the current situation, goals, and strategies of various stakeholders. This was followed by case studies showcasing implementation examples that contribute to achieving the outlined objectives. Building on these presentations, participants discussed their personal perspectives and approaches to the topic in group sessions. Key questions included:

• How can we decouple the (growing) demand for tourism from the (growing) demand for motorized individual transport in tourism?
• Do restrictive measures on motorized individual transport deter tourists? If so, how can this be mitigated?
• How can effective collaboration between stakeholders be achieved to address these challenges?

The seminar concluded with a panel discussion. As part of the accompanying program, participants enjoyed a guided tour of the historic Südbahnhotel on the Semmering.

Organizers: Roman Klementschitz, Juliane Stark, and Oliver Roider

IVe Researchers at the Austrian Cycling Summit in Wiener Neustadt, April 16–17, 2024

This year's Austrian Cycling Summit was held under the theme "Cycling for Everyone" and provided a platform for representatives from research, planning, politics, administration, business, and more.

Juliane Stark from the Institute for Transport Studies delivered an engaging keynote on the attitudes of children and adolescents toward cycling, titled "Cycling – Healthy and Environmentally Friendly – But Still Not My Thing!?" The presentation incorporated findings from the ongoing Sparkling Science project "TRA:WELL – Transport and Wellbeing." In the subsequent panel discussion, she joined Bettina Schützhofer (Sicher unterwegs), Paul Föttinger (woom), and Hans-Peter Wagentristel (LK Eisenstadt) to discuss what is needed to encourage children and adolescents to cycle so that they remain actively mobile as adults.

Michael Meschik presented a successful practical planning example in the session "Intermodal Hubs," focusing on the railway underpass in Lienz, which has significantly improved accessibility to the Lienz city center for cyclists and pedestrians.

In the session "Redistributing Public Spaces – Here's How," Juliane Stark, together with David Madlener from the Energy Institute Vorarlberg, presented exciting results from Diedo Ladstätter's master's thesis: "The Winds of Change – How Parking Management in Vorarlberg Municipalities Provides Impulses for Sustainable Work Mobility."

The well-attended event, which featured numerous project presentations, strategies, and practical examples, also served as a platform for exchange and networking. It concluded with the presentation of the klimaaktiv mobil awards by Federal Minister Leonore Gewessler.

Tourism Mobility in Light of the Traffic Transition

Austria is a tourism country.

Tourism brings significant economic benefits by creating jobs and contributing to regional value creation. At the same time, the motorized mobility of vacationers poses numerous challenges in aligning the associated traffic volumes with the goals of the traffic transition toward climate-friendly transportation. This applies both to travel to the vacation destination (e.g., availability of transportation options, travel costs, luggage transport, reliability, and travel time) and to on-site mobility.

In this year's seminar, we aim to address this topic, starting with the current situation, the goals, and the strategies of various stakeholders. Following this, implementation examples will be presented that contribute to achieving the outlined objectives.

As usual, this two-half-day event will consist of a mix of keynote presentations, reflective workshops, and group discussions. This year, it will once again be held in cooperation with the Endowed Professorship for Digitalization and Automation in the Transport and Mobility System at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). There will be ample time for exchanging ideas both within the official program and informally outside of it.

VENUE: Reichenau an der Rax (Lower Austria)

IATBR 2024

It is our great pleasure to announce that the 17th International Conference of Travel Behavior Research (IATBR 2024 Conference) will be held in Vienna, Austria, on July 14-18, 2024.

IATBR  is an international organization of scholars, researchers, practitioners, consultants, and public agency professionals dedicated to the advancement of travel behaviour research.

The main theme of the conference is "Transformative Travel Behaviour Research - Looking beyond Back-to-Normal"

The submission deadline for extended abstracts is September 30, 2023.

The conference welcomes submissions on all aspects of travel behaviour research and application and 8 (eight) Special Issues are currently planned as a part of IATBR 2024 post-conference publication.

In particular, the following nine thematic categories have been selected as the main focus areas:

* Active mobility, life-stages, and quality of life

* Adoption, adaptation, and impacts of new technologies

* Time-use and locational choices

* Innovative data collection methods and alternative data sources

* Psychometrics, attitudes, and perceptions

* Pattern recognition in decision-making processes

* Transformative policy and behavioural change

* Advanced modeling and simulation

* Other relevant topics

Important dates:

- Deadline of abstract submission (2000-3000 words): 30 September 2023

- Distribution of review results: 31 January 2024

- Early registration opening: 1 March 2024

- Start of the conference: 14 July 2024

For the extended abstracts which are selected for special issue publication, a separate time frame will be given upon the completion of the abstract selection process.

More information about the conference is available at: https://iatbr2024.univie.ac.at

Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at: iatbr2024(at)boku.ac.at

Winter seminar Institute of Transport Studies

Members of the Institute of Transport Studies once again took part in the winter seminar of German-speaking transport research institutes, this time in Bad Gastein. The focus was on the exchange of expertise between doctoral students and professors and on the improvement of discipline-specific English repectively German language skills for non-native speakers. We also tested our applied transport skills during active winter mobility on skis, snowboards, snowshoes and while hiking.

29.02.2024 Symposium "Decision-making processes in the transport sector"

This year, on February 29th, 2024, a symposium on "Decision-making processes in the transport sector" will take place in honor of Em.O.Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr Gerd Sammers 80th birthday.

Here you can find more information:

PROGRAM

Conference "Decision-Making Processes in the Transport Sector" – Recap

Gerd Sammer led the Institute from 1996 to 2012 and remains highly active and competent in various topics within the transport sector. Over 90 participants attended the event on February 29, 2024.

Following opening speeches by the current head of the Institute, Astrid Gühnemann, and the Secretary General of the Research Association for Road-Rail-Transport, Martin Car—both of whom offered high praise for Gerd Sammer—the conference featured expert presentations exploring diverse decision-making processes across five institutional levels (see program):

• Georg Hauger delivered a captivating, unscripted speech from a university perspective, using mythological analogies to describe the labyrinthine dilemmas of Austrian transport policy.
• Thomas Spiegel provided insights into the activities of the Federal Ministry for Climate Action (BMK) regarding the collection and modeling of transport data and the creation of traffic forecasts.
• Elisabeth Raser presented the ÖBB-PV transport model as a foundation for service planning.
• Bettina Schützhofer explained the psychological reasons why a general speed limit of 80 km/h on rural roads currently has little chance of being implemented in transport policy.
• Thomas Schmid proposed an intriguing idea from urban transport planning: retaining the reduced car capacity caused by construction sites even after the work is completed and reallocating the road space.

After the expert presentations, Gerd Sammer was honored. The tribute began with a laudatory speech by Andrea Reithmayer, former Vice-Rector for Finance at BOKU, followed by a humorous photo presentation by Michael Meschik, showcasing Gerd Sammer's life and work. Wolfgang J. Berger then delivered a poetic ballad titled "16+12 Years of Sammer-Time." As a gift, Gerd Sammer was presented with a book containing photos and contributions from former colleagues, acquaintances, and friends from around the world.

In his closing remarks, Gerd Sammer offered his usual critical yet constructive perspective on decision-making processes in the transport sector. At the same time, he expressed deep personal gratitude for the event held in honor of his milestone birthday. The evening concluded with food, drinks, and lively conversations that lasted well into the night.

Seminar "Development of a Traffic Concept" at Parndorf Elementary School

On January 31, 2024, the final presentation of the seminar "Development of a Traffic Concept" took place in the assembly hall of Parndorf Elementary School.

As part of a poster exhibition followed by a discussion, two student groups presented their ideas, which they had developed over the course of the winter semester under the supervision of Juliane Stark and Michael Meschik. The teams created an integrated traffic concept for all modes of transport.

One team focused on "Cycling in Parndorf," with particular attention to the connection between the train station and the Outlet Center. The second team developed ideas for the design of the Bruckerstraße/Am Wassergrund/Maierhofgasse area.

Among the approximately 70 attendees were the mayor, municipal representatives, and many interested residents of Parndorf.

DAVeMoS Day on Thurs., 25 Jan. 2024

Please find here the information for DAVeMoS Day, which will take place on 25 January 2024.