Life in the City - Mobility and Communication in Urban Settings (1990 - 1994)

Chair: Professor Dr. Dieter Sauberzweig, Berlin

Overview:

• Topic of the Collogium
• Projects areas, projects, issues

Topic of the Collegium

In this collegium, academics and expert practitioners discussed the topics in two different settings:

• The interdisciplinary research network "Mobility and Communication in Urban Agglomerations"
• The accompanying seminars "Vision and Reality: Potentials for Urban Development"

Between October 1991 and Spring 1994, scholars of urban development and transportation, sociologists and vehicle engineers, scholars of administration policy and experts of communication technology participated in the research network. In all, 23 academics and scientists from the Technical University Berlin, the Free University of Berlin, the German Institute of Urban Studies (Berlin), the Institute of City Research and Structural Policy (Berlin) as well as the research group on Technology and Society of the Daimler Benz AG had the opportunity to work together, to share their experience and thought.

The seminars with the title "Vision and Reality: Potentials for Urban Development" reflected the work of the research network and complemented the findings. Participants from academia and municipal administrators met with the members of the research network to discuss selected aspects of the topic in an extended framework and reflect interim results.

Methods and Scenarios

The research network approached the topics from two different angles, using parallel as well as interrelating viewpoints. After the selection of the central issues in structured preliminary meetings, the current status of the academic discussion concerning the selected topics of the network was presented in theoretical projects. At the same time, the multitude of different links as well as the interrelationships of the various issues were connected with each other in a highly structured process of communication and presented as complex scenarios. This way, two scenarios of mobility and communication could be projected as a possible future for our metropolitan areas in the year 2020.

The findings of the research network pointed clearly in one direction: transport policy is urban policy. Transportation, here understood as both an event and as infrastructure, shapes urban development and most particularly, residential development. In turn, residential structures which create transportation needs can create traffic patterns that are more or less congested. Results are a number of suggestions for meaningful urban policy and urban planning that will not leave transportation development and urban development to chance.

• Transportation has to be seen as an effect of something. An increase of traffic does not follow any laws of nature, it is caused by decisions of people in a very concrete setting. Those conditions can be shaped and thus transportation needs can be influenced.
• There is no single perfect solution. Nothing will work everywhere and for everyone. Not telematics, not on-street parking controls, neither blocking traffic from the city centers nor tax hikes or the development of public transportation will have any sustainable effects if used as isolated measures. Only in suitable combinations will there be useful results - direct intervention and the development of a framework are interconnected.
• All efforts to contain traffic will fail, if urban space is not considered as such. In order to achieve a considerable decline in transportation needs, urban density has to offer an increase of the quality of life in the city and has to provide a healthy mixture of residential areas and work as well as opportunities for shopping and for leisure activities. For residents, retailers and businesses alike, the urge to move to the outskirts of the cities is strong and self containing. Anyone supporting this development has to be aware of the effects on traffic.

In the end, politics must decide on the agenda. On the positive side, transportation offers mobility and provision. On the negative side, transportation in its present form reduces the quality of life in the city with noise and exhaust fumes, high land use and high risks of accidents. There can not be a fast and simple solution for the traffic problems of major metropolitan areas. Only precise and integrated action can lead to step by step improvements. However, a long term perspective in urban policy has to be taken to achieve positive effects in urban development. The further development is dependent on whether or not unity on certain objectives can be achieved and whether or not politics and administration will act upon on those objectives.

The results of this collegium have been published in a compendium of six volumes.

(See Publications)

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Project areas, projects, issues

Project Area I: Framework and Methods

Project 1: Research and Reflection of Methods
Eckard P. W. Minx, Thomas Waschke, Michael Steinbrecher and Christian Neuhaus

Project 2: Framework
A Model of Agglomeration
Rainer Mackensen, Dieter Rüffler and Wolfgang Serbser

A Test of Urban Compatibility
Hellmut Wollmann and Detlef Höppe

Project Area II: Technology, Mobility and the Structure of Space

Project 3: Telematics and Urban Structure
Technical Concepts of Telematics
Klaus Fellbaum

Effects of the Application of Technical Concepts on the City
Dietrich Henckel and Holger Floeting

Project 4: The Mix of Functions in Urban Spaces
Factors Concerning the Compatibility of Functions
Dietrich Henckel and Holger Floeting

Concepts of Urban Planning to Reduce Traffic
Eckhard Kutter and Hans-Christian Holz-Rau

Project Area III: Technology, Mobility and Behavior

Project 5: Structures of Mobility and Flexibility
Transportation Development and Intention of Usage
Eckhard Kutter and Hans-Christian Holz-Rau

Structures of Productions and the Transportation of Goods
Hellmut Wollmann and Detlef Höppe

Project 6: Occasion for Mobility and Flexibility
Systematic Factors of Flexibility
Gernot Wersig

Culture and Leisure
Gernot Wersig and Petra Schuck-Wersig

Occasions for Communication Needs and Mobility Differentiated According to Gender and Age
Rainer Mackensen

The Consequences of New Information and Communications Technologies for the Density of Traffic and its Distribution
Klaus Fellbaum and Rainer Mackensen

Project Area IV: Shaping Technology and Mobility

Project 7: Instruments to Control an Integrated Urban Traffic System
Capacity and Resilience of Streets and Cities
Dieter Apel, Hermann Appel and Günter Hoffmann

Shifting Traffic to Sustainable Means of Transportation (Public Transport, Bicycles, Walking) and the Consequences for Effective Performance
Dieter Apel, Hellmut Wollmann and Detlef Höppe

Possible Application and Basic Conditions for City Cars
Hermann Appel and Hellmut Wollmann

The Use of Communication Technology and Traffic Guidance Systems to Improve Traffic Conditions
Günter Hoffmann, Hellmut Wollmann and Matthias Heinz

Restrictions in the Context of Parking Management, Road-Pricing-Systems and General Pricing Strategies
Dieter Apel, Günter Hoffmann, Hellmut Wollmann and Detlef Höppe

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