Research

Children’s active mobility, including walking, cycling, and scootering, has declined significantly in recent decades, raising concerns about long-term public health and environmental impacts. This trend challenges the 15-minute city concept, which seeks to promote sustainable travel by placing essential services within walking or cycling distance. Despite efforts to encourage active mobility, it remains unclear why many children do not adopt these habits, even in mobility-friendly areas. The ACTIVATE project aims to address this gap by examining factors that influence children’s travel behavior, such as the built environment, social networks, and attitudes. ACTIVATE focuses on several key areas: (1) Geographic differences and mobility poverty, investigating how access and perceptions impact active travel across regions, particularly in deprived areas. (2) The influence of peers and parents on children’s travel decisions. (3) Shifts in attitudes toward mobility during key developmental stages. (4) Variations in travel patterns across different age groups. ACTIVATE will collaborate with stakeholders, including urban planners and educators, to co-create guidelines that promote a cohesive, user-friendly mobility network. The project’s ultimate goal is to encourage sustainable, active mobility as the foundation of future urban transportation systems.

The project examines the mobility behavior of Eisenstadt's population and other groups relevant to traffic in Eisenstadt, in particular commuters traveling to work or school. All journeys made on a specific day are recorded, including the purpose, start and destination addresses, time, and choice of transport. In addition, the shopping trips to Eisenstadt made by commuting customers are also recorded. The analysis shows the current situation and changes since 2013, including mobility demand and modal split, supplemented by suggestions from the population. The results provide a sound basis for strategic planning instruments such as the urban development plan or the walking master plan and support the evaluation of developments, the identification of areas for action, and the consideration of new challenges such as climate change, the energy crisis, and the long-term effects of the COVID pandemic.

Problem definition: Since Oct. 2022, motor vehicles travelling at over 30 km/h must keep a distance of at least 2 m to the side when overtaking cyclists outside built-up areas. For cars or especially lorries or buses, overtaking in compliance with the law on the thousands of kilometres of rather narrow country roads largely requires the entire width of the carriageway. There is only rudimentary data available on compliance with or non-compliance with the side distance rule. There is also no technical enforcement option in Austria to date, although the police would be very interested in this. Objective: The project pursues two main objectives: (i) Using objective, well-founded data on the course of cycling overtaking manoeuvres on narrow country roads, the aim is to answer the actual extent of the motor vehicle side distance, which factors influence it (e.g. oncoming traffic, vehicle type and speed) and what psycho-physical effect it has on the cyclists involved. (ii) Recommendations should be drawn up on the extent to which the survey methods (see solution approach) appear suitable as a starting point for a technical enforcement option. Solution approach: On-site measurements are carried out simultaneously using two different methods: An automated lateral distance measurement with a measuring bike and a location-based video observation. This allows the data volumes of overtaking manoeuvres (uninfluenced and generated by test cyclists) required to achieve the target to be collected and analysed.