Research

Healthy travelling means being actively mobile. The health benefits of active mobility are primarily generated through exercise, whether walking, cycling or scootering. At the same time, pedestrians and cyclists are particularly sensitive to their (traffic) environment, the desirable characteristics of which are reflected in the indicators of the Healthy Streets approach. These include street safety, green space, quality of life through seating and play areas, shade, good air quality, low noise levels and optimally designed infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists. In its 2024 - 2028 framework work programme, the „Fonds Gesundes Österreich“ has defined the funding priority ‘Healthy Travelling - Active Mobility & Healthy Streets’ in the living environment ‘Municipalities, Cities and Regions’. On the one hand, this is about promoting active mobility in the municipal setting, and on the other hand, the ©Healthy Streets concept is to be pursued or established in the applicant municipalities for the first time in Austria. With quality-assured processes and suitable measures, both approaches can make an essential contribution not only to health promotion, but also to climate protection. The AMOHS project aims to support the funding call, supervise the funded projects and evaluate the processes and measures implemented in the projects. The scientific focus is on evaluation. The question concentrates on the effectiveness of measures to promote active mobility and health promotion with regard to a sustainable change in health and mobility behaviour, as well as on the feasibility and impact of the Healthy Streets approach. In the sense of Third Mission, the project results and lessons learnt will be disseminated not only in the scientific community but also in the municipalities themselves.

In Austria, 2/3 of the population live in rural areas. In these regions in particular, young people experience mobility as "car-orientated", and many young people associate private cars with freedom and independence. Offers for active mobility, sharing or demand-responsive transport are little known, unpopular or simply do not exist. The EMOJI project focuses on solutions for a regional mobility supply guarantee that are co-designed and supported by young people. In pilot regions (Upper Austria, Styria), we will evaluate existing ideas for sustainable, regional mobility provision for young people and prepare them for sustainable implementation. Information on the willingness of municipalities to ensure mobility supply suitable for young people and on perceived barriers to the implementation of good mobility solutions will be collected. Existing offers, examples of good practice and measures that have been "put on hold" will be examined for their suitability and their feasibility. The resulting framework concept should contain easily transferable, necessary principles and recommendations that enable municipalities to define and implement needs-based, attractive mobility offers with and for young people. The concept is developed in a participatory process together with young people, representatives of municipalities and relevant stakeholders in municipalities. The development of the regional solution approach is evidence-based and orientated towards the mobility needs of young people and their perceived hurdles as well as the needs and scope for action of the municipalities. The final output of the project is a framework concept for the development of a mobility offer tailored to young people in the model regions and support for decision-makers during implementation.

GreenPATH is a project aimed at providing sustainable commuting solutions to students and employees in functional urban areas (FUAs) in Central Europe. The project is co-designed with mobility managers and targeted towards public and private stakeholders. It aims to develop smart and green mobility solutions through pilots, strategies, and action plans developed by 11 public administrations, mobility agencies and operators, universities, and research bodies, and 12 associated partners. The project focuses on addressing the challenges related to mobility management and commuting from home to work. The partners will develop a common strategy for the integrated governance of commuter flows in FUAs. They will deliver innovative solutions that can be scaled up in FUAs, leveraging new technologies and data-sharing platforms to optimize transport efficiency, improve the overall commuting experience, and provide commuters with real-time information, personalized travel options, and seamless integration of different modes of transport. GreenPATH will deliver practical solutions and action plans for a wide range of potential users, including local and regional public authorities, sectoral agencies, infrastructure, and (public) service providers, higher education and research organizations, schools, industrial and service companies, and related mobility management teams. The project outputs include three collaborative solutions for sustainable mobility, tested in three pilots deployed throughout FUAs, the GreenPATH Strategy, and seven action plans for each FUA. These outputs are expected to be endorsed by decision-makers, ensuring the take-up and further implementation of the solutions.