Urban MoVe - Private law contracts as innovative instruments for city and mobility planning.

The topic of housing is becoming increasingly important as a central field of action for climate protection measures. Until now, little attention has been paid to sustainable mobility in residential locations, which has a great potential for CO2 and energy savings and which, contrary to many transport policy objectives, is not being exploited. For a holistic climate- and energy-efficient planning of the residential location, early consideration and planning of mobility concerns and innovative mobility solutions is indispensable, since approx. 80% of all journeys begin and end at the residential location. Here, the choice of means of transport is decisive. Initial experience, which has not yet been evaluated, suggests that positive steering effects can be achieved primarily through private law instruments (e.g. mobility contracts, funds, urban development contracts) between municipalities and project applicants. Currently, national and international new ground is being broken in the development, application and evaluation of private-law steering and planning instruments.

At this point, the research project Urban MoVe comes in. By analysing and evaluating first practical examples (Graz, Vienna), the research question was pursued as to what extent private-law instruments are suitable as steering instruments for an interlinked, future-oriented urban and mobility planning and how a new and further development of these instruments can appear regarding the background of mobility innovations (e.g. sharing & electric mobility, Mobility as a Service).Effects and successes of already implemented practical examples were analysed and form the basis for legal, measure- and actor-related as well as process-related new and further developments of the contractual steering instruments. Initial international best practice observations complete the picture to ensure transferability of the project results. A holistic research approach and a multifaceted communication and networking concept were used to show the different perspectives and interests of all relevant planning actors (e.g. municipalities, developers, mobility service providers, etc.).

The project aims to support a change of perspective from monomodal car-oriented to multimodal mobility. The focus is on contractually regulated steering instruments, with a targeted transfer of knowledge and the development of missing understanding and know-how. Besides the present report on the results, a practice-oriented guideline was developed in the project to support planning actors in the development, implementation and quality assurance of steering instruments under private law to achieve the following goals: (1) increasing the quality of the building project by reducing the use of space for private motor vehicles and providing more space for private or communal (open) spaces on the property or in the building, (2) ensuring mobility inclusion and accessibility through a variety of affordable mobility options, (3) meeting climate protection targets by shifting the modal split in favour of environmental transport, (4) cost savings in housing construction and consequently affordable housing by eliminating parking spaces in parking structures, and (5) upgrading public space by reducing the number of parking spaces for cars.

The results of this research project prove that a variety of (innovative) mobility measures as part of a residential location-based mobility concept have an effect on the mobility behaviour of the residents and lead to multimodal lifestyles with means of transport of the environmental network, less affinity and dependence to private cars. It is demonstrated how sustainable mobility related to residential locations can be implemented in a binding manner and addressed and controlled at an early stage through the further development of public-c as well as private law instruments with the inclusion of the diverse planning actors. The project presents application-oriented possibilities for designing instruments and processes to achieve transparent planning and implementation processes with a high level of acceptance by those involved.

Recommendations for instruments under public law:

• At all planning levels, it has to be established that future land-use decisions are increasingly oriented towards sustainable mobility criteria (traffic avoidance and shift in favour of the environmental network).
• Implement efficient land management through consistent avoidance of urban sprawl and internal densification in land-use decisions to reduce traffic-related emissions and land consumption in motor vehicle traffic.
• Adapt spatial planning laws to better anchor measures from mobility concepts as content in development plans by empowering municipalities.

Recommendations on private law instruments:

• Specify legal authorisations in spatial planning laws on the possible uses and contents of instruments under private law.
• Harmonise legal authorisations for private law instruments in the spatial planning laws of the federal provinces to reduce complexity and effort for the administration and project applicants.
• Publish private law instruments as part of a transparent administration to increase transparency and acceptance and to enable the re-use of good practice examples.
• Develop model contracts with contract details and guidelines on sanctioning possibilities for more efficient contract preparation.

Recommendations on mobility concepts in a legal context

• Gradually deepen and consistently work through the mobility concept from general to detailed within the process so that the focus is on concrete local implementation.
• Understand the mobility concept as an integrated part of the development of the municipality, city and district as well as of local situations.
• Plan mobility measures integrated with local supply, urban development, open space, etc. to use synergies.
• Anchor financing, organisational and operational models for shared mobility services, last-mile logistics, etc. in the detailed mobility concept in the process to clarify costs and responsibilities.
• Consider user needs based on defined target groups to achieve high acceptance of mobility offers.
• Develop and implement mobility concepts for all building sites, as many building sites can benefit from measures in the residential environment and many mobility offers can be implemented more easily due to a larger number of users.
• Ensure qualities, monitor successes and use the potential of future technological, social, etc. developments to learn, develop and adapt offers. Use potentials of future technological, social, etc. developments to learn and adapt offers

Project management

DI Mag. Mario Platzer - yverkehrsplanung GmbH

Project or cooperation partners

• TU Wien - Fachbereich Bodenpolitik und Bodenmanagement
• TU Graz – Institut für Städtebau
• Grazer Energieagentur GmbH
• Urban Innovation Vienna GmbH

DI Mag. Mario Platzer
Brockmanngasse 55
A-8010 Graz
Tel.: +43 (699) 188 707 66
E-mail: mario.platzer@yverkehrsplanung.at
Web: www.yverkehrsplanung.at/index.php/de/