Overview
The research programme 'Urban Transport' (FOPS) is an initiative dedicated to improving short-distance traffic conditions in municipalities and also rural areas. FOPS is funded with resources from the 'Local Authority Traffic Financing Act' (approximately EUR 3.6 million annually). The programme addresses the following research topics:
- planning and preparation of investments in transportation policy
- foundations and strategies of a sustainable transportation policy
- concepts for unrestricted mobility
- transportation safety planning in cities
- transportation telematics for urban public transport
- traffic management in urban transportation
- integration of traffic planning and settlement planning
- planning for non-motorised traffic
- competition and marketing in public transport
- statistical studies of mobility behaviour
- development of methods for transportation planning and urban planning.
The Urban Transport programme's key objectives are:
- to improve living and housing standards through better public transport incentives that encourage shifts away from private car use;
- to investigate known regional public transport bottlenecks, and to optimise the integration of public transport services;
- to overcome barriers for regional public transport use, and to improve the safety of PT;
- to implement traffic information systems in the hosting cities of the 2006 football World Cup;
- to support additional research into the establishment of car-free city quarters, and to further refine car-sharing concepts, contributing to comprehensive city traffic management; and
- to address the growing role of bicycle use, in particular looking at its currently unused potential to increase overall mobility of traffic participants.
FOPS has the goal of providing policy makers in the field of urban and regional transportation with practical, scientific and application-oriented knowledge. Central to the programme is an application-oriented research of technical and organisational questions, the solutions of which guarantee the nation-wide implementation of new concepts for urban transport.
Funding
Calls for tenders.
The programme is funded with resources from the 'Local Authority Transport Financing Act' on an annual basis.