Mobility
Cities around the world are suffering from an increase of private transportation, and those who live on main roads have an increased risk of illness due to noise pollution and exhaust emissions.
The private transportation boom that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s led individual towns in the Upper Rhine Valley to develop transportation concepts at an early stage. In the early 1970s, the first pedestrian zones were built in the city centers and are still being expanded today. At the same time, municipalities focused on the expansion of public transportation by establishing new lines for buses and trams. Administrative units also joined together with transportation associations to win new customers with attractive monthly passes. In the 1980s, work began on building a network of bike paths, which is supplemented today by non-intersecting bike “expressways” to make bike traffic faster with the help of bridges and tunnels.
Today, all larger cities in the Upper Rhine Valley place an increasing emphasis on traffic calming measures. Park & Ride locations are set up on the periphery and multilane roads in the inner cities are being removed bit by bit. New neighborhoods are being designed without parking spaces in front of the buildings, and cars are parked in neighborhood garages.
The Modal Split serves as a way of measuring success, and the goal is to reduce car traffic in a city like Freiburg to 20%, thus increasing the quality of one’s stay in the city.