Leisure Traffic in Urban Areas (SVI 2004/074)
Overview
Background & policy context:
Leisure traffic is the most important segment of traffic, showing the highest share of road transport. Moreover, it contributes to high emissions and it is related to high energy consumption. Within research, leisure traffic is perceived as the most difficult segment to be influenced at all. A very detailed understanding of its complex structures is crucial in order to suggest approaches to a sustainable urban traffic system.
Objectives:
The main goals of the projects are:
- To quantify the key figures in leisure travel and in people’s behaviour in urban areas during their leisure time in order to estimate the significance of leisure travel within urban areas.
- To work out potentials of regulation and possible impacts of leisure travel towards sustainability using mobility style groups in leisure time.
- To develop useful approaches to influence the mobility style groups to discover the potentials and limitations of shifting traffic towards public transport (PT) and walking or cycling.
Methodology:
The first step of the project included the interpretation of basic data within the area of leisure traffic provided by the 2005 Swiss Microcensus on Travel Behaviour. In an empirical research carried out in 2007 for the population of metropolitan area in the German and French-speaking parts of Switzerland, profiles of general attitude portraying both people’s mobility and their lifestyle were worked out and analysed. From these data, a typology of leisure mobility was derived in order to develop measures to influence and regulate leisure traffic in urban areas.
As a final result, the project provides basic information on the significance of leisure traffic within urban areas as well as an in-depth understanding of the activity-driven and motivational background of leisure behaviour in everyday life. Furthermore, efficient approaches to influence leisure traffic will be presented, and recommendations for a more sustainable design of leisure transport in urban areas will be given.
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