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In West Europe, traffic is heavy and growing heavier. Cars cause problems for accessibility, economic development and the quality of the environment, especially in urban areas. Without effective measures, these problems will increase. The traditional response to more traffic is: more roads. However, often there is no space to build more roads. What's more, more tarmac calls up social resistance. Simply building more roads is not a long-term solution.
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One lasting solution is to prevent or limit the use of cars by offering motorists attractive alternatives. The target groups are primarily motorists in commuter, business and social/recreational traffic. This systematic approach will take place under the flag of mobility management.
Until now, mobility management meant first of all offering alternatives. Unfortunately, practical results did not live up to expectations. Very seldom had research been done to find out if the supply met the needs and desires of the target groups. Besides, mobility management is not a built-in part of urban plans and transport solutions from the start of their development. The experience gained with OPTIMUM-1 (click here for the summary of the final report) and various mobility management projects has led to a user-oriented approach, which offers the motorist attractive alternatives . This approach is now being applied and tested in OPTIMUM². |
