Germany: Sustainability analysis of cycling on country roads.
Background
Together with walking, cycling is the most climate-friendly and environmentally friendly form of transport. Especially in inner-city areas, but also in rural areas, it can be seen that road users are increasingly using bicycles and it can be assumed that this trend will continue to increase in the future. This increase would contribute to making mobility more sustainable.
In order to follow the guiding principle of sustainable development, the federal government developed the German Sustainability Strategy (DNS). In the current version, 75 indicators and goals are defined, which are based on the three dimensions of economy, social affairs and environment. Traffic and traffic infrastructure have an impact on some of these and other indicators that are not included in the DNS. This applies in particular to areas such as B. Nature, climate and environmental protection and other topics such as the health and safety of the population. However, it has not been researched which indicators are explicitly addressed by the planning of cycling infrastructure and what an assessment procedure can look like in order to be able to carry out sustainability considerations when planning cycling facilities along country roads.
The research project is intended to determine which of the indicators that already exist or are currently being developed - in particular those of the German Sustainability Strategy - can be used as an evaluation variable and whether further surveys or analyzes are necessary in order to carry out a sustainability assessment when planning cycle traffic facilities on country roads to be able to carry out. Finally, a method that can be used in practice should be developed from this.
Note: Languages in which tenders or requests to participate may be submitted: German
Published on 17 January 2023.