Research

Lower Austria is a land of commuters. The share of electric cars in the car fleet in Lower Austria is currently less than 2% (Statistics Austria, as of 2022). Climate change and the energy crisis require a shift toward a renewable energy supply in both public and private transport. The use of alternative drive systems must therefore increase massively. The question is how quickly and to what extent this will happen. What are the motivations/barriers for or against alternative drive systems, such as e-mobility? How can a state, city, or municipality promote the mobility transition while simultaneously adapting and optimizing infrastructure planning to meet demand? Which journeys beyond commuting are primarily made by car, and is additional/different infrastructure necessary for this?

The EMORA project aims to develop a sound, multidimensional and operationalizable definition of mobility poverty, which entails four different sub-goals: (1) to develop specific definitions and operationalization options for private households and micro-enterprises that are tailored to the needs and challenges of both groups; (2) to include diverse perspectives by linking literature-, data- and stakeholder-based approaches; (3) to consider interactions between mobility and energy poverty in order to create a consistent basis for eligibility criteria and targeted measures; and (4) to derive possible measures to reduce mobility and accessibility poverty within the framework of the European Social Climate Fund.

In the last ten years, the number of bicycle accidents in Austria has risen sharply (Statistik Austria, 2023), especially in single-vehicle accidents (e.g. KFV, 2023). This increase is attributed to various factors, such as low cycling practice and competence, increased risk-taking, distraction, technical problems with bicycles and inadequate infrastructure. Despite this development, there are no systematic empirical studies on the underlying cycling skills of the Austrian population. The aim of the project is to record the skills and knowledge of test persons of different age groups with regard to safe participation in road traffic by bicycle. Cycling skills are to be systematically recorded using multi-method (psychological, technical, pedagogical and medical) survey instruments. The planned study pursues an interdisciplinary approach in order to holistically record the strength and weakness profiles of different age groups with regard to their cycling skills. The results will contribute to the development of targeted age- and gender-specific measures to improve cycling skills at the training and awareness level as well as on the infrastructure side, thus helping to reduce cycling accidents.