City and university join forces for a transport turnaround

The babble of voices is loud, individual words and sentences filter through: "Everyone must be heard!", "Ban culture" and "Tipping point" or "We're running out of time!". Around 40 people are sitting together in the Klimalounge in the centre of Bayreuth to talk about the mobility transition in the region. It's not just about transport in the city of Bayreuth, the links between the city and the district, but also about the connection to the university locations in Kulmbach and Thurnau as well as mobility to, on and from the university campus - because the "forum1.5" team at the Chair of Urban and Regional Development and the "University Transformation Laboratory" at the University of Bayreuth had organised the event. The aim of the afternoon is to discuss approaches for a mobility turnaround in the region and to develop proposals on what steps are needed to take people with us on the arduous journey towards the 1.5 degree target.

His conclusion: "We can't wait for new technologies, we have to change our behaviour, especially when it comes to our mobility." For Miosga, it is obvious that this first and foremost requires a change in mobility behaviour, from private car transport to more public transport and new sharing models, for example.

Prof. Dr Susanne Tittlbach, Vice President for Digitalisation, Innovation and Sustainability at the University of Bayreuth, together with "forum1.5", has brought funding from the Stifterverband to the University of Bayreuth, which will enable closer cooperation between the university and the city of Bayreuth. Susanne Tittlbach emphasises: "No institution can achieve the transition to sustainable mobility on its own. The implementation of the university's sustainability strategy, our efforts to improve public transport, e-charging and cycling infrastructure, for example, can only succeed in cooperation with the city of Bayreuth." This is made clear by the dry figures: Of the approximately 2,600 employees of the University of Bayreuth, around 1,400 live in the city alone and around 500 in the district of Bayreuth. Of the approximately 12,500 students, around 5,600 have their primary residence (based on their semester address) in the city of Bayreuth. Mobility needs are therefore extremely heterogeneous and intertwine requirements for the city, region and campus in terms of infrastructure.

The participants of the first meeting in the Klimalounge will work on these topics - accompanied by Planersocietät from Dortmund:

• Mobility to, on and from the University of Bayreuth campus.
• How can the city and district of Bayreuth work in partnership to strengthen active mobility and public transport in the region?
• How can the University of Bayreuth support the creation and implementation of the mobility concept for the city of Bayreuth?
• Model neighbourhood for sustainable mobility - how can the city and university work together?
• Ideas on how conflicts can be dealt with productively and blockades resolved.

The results will initially be prepared internally and made available to the participants. The content will also serve as a basis for the subsequent workshops in 2024.

In a one-year process, the city and university now want to work out a vision for the future and develop concrete measures that can be used to initiate the necessary changes. For the cooperation project between the University and the City of Bayreuth, this means creating a transformative mobility concept for the campus and the region and driving forward various measures for the transition to sustainable mobility. The start has now been made!