Austrian mobility management accelerates shift to sustainable transport

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If a municipality in Lower Austria faces a mobility challenge or wants to know how to provide and foster sustainable mobility services, they know where to turn to. We deliver advice, information and connect the municipality with the relevant players.Martina Sanz, Mobility Manager, NÖ.Regional.GmbHRegional administrators have found it difficult to ‘green’ their public transport networks due to the different businesses and industry involved. Each of these stakeholders has their own priorities and demands. And while information on mobility is not hard to find, it can be conflicting.Now, a six-year expansion of mobility management in Lower Austria is providing staff and knowledge to foster sustainable transport. Around 315 municipalities have joined the initiative since 2016. In total, more than 85 % of all municipalities in the region are promoting sustainable mobility.Experts at the wheelAny municipality in the region can apply for a ‘mobility manager’ by contacting NÖ.Regional.GmbH. During the project’s last six years, the new mobility managers provided comprehensive consulting services in around 2 400 cases.Participating municipalities are encouraged to appoint two members of the local government and administration as ‘mobility agents’ who become important advocates for sustainable mobility within the community. They meet with the managers at least once a year to develop new measures and exchange knowledge.Shifting gearNÖ.Regional.GmbH currently employs nine mobility managers with different weekly working hours. Through them, numerous projects have resulted in a wide range of improvements in communities, such as free bike repair workshops, new cycling paths, e-car sharing schemes, taxis-on-call, and SchulGehBus, where children are dropped off at designated locations and accompanied to school on foot by a volunteer supervisor. The aim is to fill gaps in the existing public transport network, such as the ‘last mile’ between home and work.Improvements to bus timetables and better information for citizens via websites and leaflets are among the other changes made. Awareness-raising campaigns have targeted school mobility and events have promoted sustainable mobility.In 2019, a new training programme was launched for the mobility agents at participating municipalities. Municipalities can apply for an award for outstanding mobility projects, further raising the visibility of these schemes and improving the likelihood that the project’s impact will be felt in other European regions.Total investment and EU fundingTotal investment for the project “Expansion of the mobility management of NÖ.Regional.GmbH” is EUR 1 935 423, with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 1 935 423 through the “Investments in Growth and Employment Austria” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority “Energy Union and Climate”.