Overview
This study is focused on the post-midnight leisure traffic, a subcomponent of recreational traffic. This is a topic which cannot be underestimated, most notably in larger cities and agglomerations. The main activity is the attendance of events, often summarised by the term “party.” Therefore, the term “party traffic” will also be used hereafter. This type of traffic is predominantly generated by a young public made up of party-goers mainly between the ages of 18 and 25.
The objective of this research is the listing of measures, which either reduce motorised individual nocturnal leisure traffic and/or can contribute to an increase in road safety.
In order to do justice to the rapidly changing nocturnal leisure offers with the resulting volume of traffic, only qualitative research approaches were used. Through a literature analysis, the most current available studies and reports on the subject of nocturnal leisure traffic were compiled and analysed. Discussion panels were conducted in the cities of Geneva, St. Gall and Zurich among “party-goers” to discover their fundamental needs and their assessment on the matter of nocturnal
recreational traffic. Subsequently, 11 organisers of nighttime leisure events were surveyed on this topic by way of questionnaire.
Funding
Results
The greatest potential for increasing the number of public transportation users among party-goers exists in the urban setting. The main players are primarily the public transport operators, as well as the organisers of nighttime leisure activities.
In order to achieve qualitatively good public transportation alternatives, which are easily understood and contain short headways, an appealing advertising campaign must be developed to explain nocturnal offerings. The information must be easily accessible, meaning that at a minimum, the timetable and information on the nocturnal transportation network need to be placed at high visibility locations near the events.
One type of offer with considerable development potential is the shared taxi. In
addition to the conventional taxi service, this comparatively inexpensive type of taxi is
as yet barely existent. Through cooperation agreements, event organisers and taxi
operators can achieve good results. The federal government, cantons and municipalities can promote projects of this type through strong support during the development phase.
When licensing clubs offering nocturnal leisure activities, local authorities are encouraged to consider all aspects involving mobility and to guarantee nocturnal connections by public transportation.
Both focus groups - party-goers as well as event organisers — value increased police controls at night as an effective measure which above all could contribute to the increase of road safety. In particular, there should be a high probability that a car driver runs into a police control which tests for alcohol and drugs. Event organisers could also voluntarily commit themselves to a “club code” with measures to prevent driving after excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs.