ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE (ECE)

Workshop on Encouraging Local Initiatives Towards Sustainable Consumption Patterns

(2-4 February 1998, Vienna, )

LOCAL INITIATIVES IN AUSTRIA TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION PATTERNS: PURCHASE OF CONSUMER GOODS AND RELATED SERVICES

National review submitted by the Federal Ministry for Environment, Youth and Family1 Austria

UNITED NATIONS Geneva, 1997

1 Division Transport, Mobility, Regional Planning and Noise. Project management and compilation: Ms. G. Langschwert. Authors: Mr. D. Kanatschnig, Mr. H. Retzl and Mr. L. Schmidt. This document has been reproduced without editing.

ECE/ENHS/NONE/1997/ GE.97 -

The present paper supplements the introductory report by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Environment, Youth and Family on „Regional Approaches to Restructuring Consumer Patterns and Socio-economic Effects of These Approaches“. On the basis of selected case studies described hereunder, a future-oriented segment of the Austrian path toward implementation of sustainable consumption styles is documented. The considerations are centred around two topical areas: local supply and traffic prevention or reduction of its effects.

The introductory report and the review of national case studies have been prepared with a purpose to promote the development of internationally valid approaches for restructuring consumption patterns and for the establishment of rules for these modification processes, beyond national frontiers.

I. The activity "pro-local supply"

Raising awareness of the population is most important in order to direct lifestyles toward sustainable development. These considerations result in the activity "pro-local supply", with the aim of initiating the realization of sustainable lifestyle through concrete awareness raising.

1. Concept, state of realization, experience

"Pro-local supply" is a practical model from specially developed for realization at municipal level. Predominant target is preservation of quality of life in locations or municipalities and demonstration of the importance of responsible behaviour on the spot. Other targets comprise keeping purchasing power in the location and thereby strengthening financial power of municipalities, and promoting regional economy. The activity is about the awareness of the interdependence of proximity, supply and quality of life. In this context, local supply means comprehensive proximity of education, jobs for apprentices, work, family, health care, production and sale of foodstuffs etc.

Basic concept is self organization with minimized external factors. Triggering a process of self organization locally results in individual responsibility and individual initiative. The activity enables citizens of all age groups to participate and thus promotes local identity.

The activity starts with compiling a list of subjects of quality of life in the respective municipality by the citizens themselves. Thereby, characteristics of everyday life in the location and current (positive or negative) developments can be traced. Subsequently, a year of discussion about quality of life and the meaning of "proximity" should comprise monthly activities and emphasis on the spheres of school, agriculture, trade etc. and, above all, joint activities of the various spheres. A project team consisting of three to five citizens who are specially trained at the beginning of the activity, bears main responsibility for organizing and coordinating the activities. Municipalities have a maximum of eight supervision days by external project leaders at their disposal per year. In addition, municipalities receive various media and materials for awareness raising and advertising the project. These comprise, inter alia, painting sheets for schools and kindergartens, series of slides and overhead foils for presentations, adverts, beermats and games for raising publicity. Furthermore, a logo - the local supply point - was created for the activity "pro-local supply", which is also awarded to enterprises and clubs as a special prize for active participation in the project.

The message is conveyed by the fictitious family Clever. It is depicted as leading motive in various advertising media. Images of individual family members in a simple way convey the contents and advantages of local supply in short statements or thoughts. Individual (fictitious) family members represent various age groups and life stages with their differing requirements and needs.

2. State of realization

Started in 1995 in several Upper Austrian municipalities, the project is now (as of October 1997) being carried out in more than fifty pilot municipalities in five federal provinces. Starting from these pilot projects, the activity should spread to neighbouring municipalities and so forth. Pilot municipalities involved so far are rural municipalities with an average of 2 500 to 3 500 inhabitants. But successful participation of several larger municipalities with about 10 000 inhabitants shows that the concept "pro-local supply" is appropriate for this size as well.

3. Effects of the project

The project supports the establishment of region integrated local supply, which can be called the core of regional economic development. In this context it must be stressed that region integrated local supply is not the total of several places of merchandise sale, but a whole network or system of producers, processing enterprises and various regional marketing forms (direct farm sale, supply to enterprise canteens, hospitals, gastronomy enterprises, markets, foodstuffs retail traders etc.) all the way to the consumers within a region. This concept of local supply differs substantially from the concept of ordinary local supply on the basis of "long distance products".

Preference of proximity in all spheres of life causes increased quality of life and strengthens economic structure within the municipality and the region. Enterprises of local supply are among the most important elements of infrastructure. Their preservation means significant simplification of essential everyday tasks. People with restricted mobility (the elderly, mothers with children, handicapped and the young) are no longer dependent on time and mobility of others. Closer contact between consumer and producer leads to supply being geared to local needs and the quality of foodstuffs increasing due to shorter transport distances and more freshness. Local suppliers such as grocers and restaurants preserve important places of information exchange and communication in the municipalities. Active awareness raising and involvement of all groups of the population within the framework of the activity "pro-local supply", means that new forms of cooperation are being initiated (among agriculture, gastronomy, tourism, trade and schools, etc.)

Responsible purchase of domestic or regional products keeps purchasing power and net output within the municipality or region. Extra income thus goes into the coffers of municipalities, resulting in more independence from external financing. These revenues are

3 now available for, e.g., infrastructural measures; the municipality remains interesting for investors, property does not decrease in value. This boost of local economy and the creation of new perspectives for the future mitigates the current problem of enterprise succession especially in foodstuffs retail trade and in agriculture. Additionally, jobs and places for apprentices can be preserved and created in various branches , resulting in decreased commuting and decreased burden on conurbations. Shopping locally and regional supply make journeys unnecessary or shorter. The ensuing reduction of air and noise emission levels has positive ecological effects. With diversified production of agricultural goods in the region itself, oriented toward demand and possibilities, an ecologically equally diversified cultural landscape can be preserved as a result of appropriate utilization. This is of great significance both for the preservation of a stable natural balance and for local recreation of the population. Moreover, a region with functioning local supply and intact cultural landscape can be better marketed for tourism. Tourism in turn creates jobs and income for the municipality or region.

Although the project is working on municipal level, high awareness of regional and supra-regional interdependence is created. By multiplying the idea in as many municipalities as possible, not only each municipality, but the whole region can be involved. In this process, exchange of experience and the start of inter-communal cooperation and coordination are important. The project "pro-local supply" shows that modification toward sustainable lifestyle does not necessary entail renunciation but can provide a positive impetus for regional economy, quality of life and the environment.

4. Model municipality Bad Goisern

The above effects of the activity "pro-local supply" are evident in the example Bad Goisern after two years in the form of concrete results. In 1995, Bad Goisern was among four pilot municipalities in Upper Austria in which the project was launched. The municipality has 7 000 inhabitants, is a spa and site of 134 enterprises. What is noteworthy is the active club life of Bad Goisern with a total of 140 clubs and 7 brass music bands. While Bad Goisern's structure is functioning and local supply is working, surrounding municipalities show negative trends such as decreasing supply, increasing commuting and out-migration of the young. The municipality wants to prevent this trend and to achieve improvement of existing structures by means of the activity "pro-local supply".

Bad Goisern has the following goals:

- Securing the desired quality of life by way of active contribution and input of one's own purchasing power; - Reducing outward flow of purchasing power within the next 5 years by about 10 % (presently, 62 % of local purchasing power stay in the location; annual outflow amounts to 38 % = about 140 million ATS); - Tapping 40 to 50 million additional purchasing power in Bad Goisern per year and creating about 40 additional jobs; - Increasing money circulation and net output for the location , keeping more money in the region and checking this goal against the purchasing power analysis 2001; - Securing the municipality's financial power and thereby, its performance capacity responsibly and actively;

4 - Thus contributing to economic power in the whole region. PR and joint activities for making Bad Goisern and its environs more attractive, show success in increased investment by the economy and the creation of new, small enterprises. In order to tackle the problem of outflow of purchasing power, a town marketing expertise was initiated. This revealed shortcomings in the assortment of merchandise and diversity of branches (such as foodstuffs and clothing on the whole, cosmetics, shoes etc.), but also a surplus of some branches (e.g. bread and baked goods, pet food, household wares). The municipality then made efforts to attract enterprises in the relevant fields. Thus, "holes" in the fields of shoes, children, cosmetics and photography have been successfully filled. Where there was superfluous supply of the same assortment of merchandise by several enterprises, some specialization was achieved in order to facilitate the survival of all enterprises without completely stifling competition.

Second focus was an analysis of all shops in Bad Goisern. It revealed that the majority of shops offered adequate assortments and attractive price/performance ratio, but that there were shortcomings in relationships with customers and shop atmosphere. Subsequently, shop owners were encouraged, for instance, better to illuminate their shops inside and outside, to emphasise display of merchandise and service and counselling to the customers. These very qualities stress the characteristic feature and the advantage and superiority over super market structures. The activity and communication among entrepreneurs initiated by "pro-local supply" led to an over twofold increase in memberships with the economy association of Bad Goisern .

Twice a year, the members of the working group "pro-local supply" initiate activities in the areas of the elderly, school, agriculture, housewives etc., organize information evenings for the respective target group and encourage contacts between groups of population. Likewise, information events for all enterprises and clubs are organized in order to acquaint small size groups of five to thirty people with the concept of "pro-local supply". Participation in these events of a certain number of employees of an enterprise or members of a club together with the intention that information should be conveyed to the enterprises and clubs, is the precondition for being awarded the local supply point. Already half the registered clubs could be awarded a point. By these information activities, awareness of various effects of one’s own behaviour is raised in all households and enterprises. Among the ecological effects of a preference of proximity are the above mentioned reduction of traffic and emission levels as well as prevention of waste by less packaging.

785 children and young people have taken part in projects around the topic local supply in kindergartens and schools. By way of example, the municipality's kindergarten presented the municipality with a flag displaying the message "We need each other !" (which was, subsequently, included in the activity as its slogan). As part of a tourism project of several years, a school contributes to a children’s and young people's guidebook on the Salzkammergut. Since April 1995, all measures costing a total of ATS 650 000 have been financed by local enterprises together with the municipality, and more than 3 000 honorary (unpaid) working hours have been contributed. This can be taken as proof of the rising interest of a growing number of the local population. Currently, another purchasing power analysis is being carried out in order to provide a comparison to the previous analysis of 1991, to

5 establish a balance of economic success achieved so far and to demonstrate which developments might have taken place in Bad Goisern, had it not been for the project. Another success is the enlargement of the project to comprise the neighbouring municipalities of Gosau, Hallstatt and Obertraun and closer cooperation of the municipalities in the area of agriculture (chaff-heating project, marketing committee).

The activity "pro-local supply" has created awareness of societal and economic significance of local structures and has made active work for the future a task for the whole location and an integral part of the municipal development plan of Bad Goisern.

5. From activity to awareness raising

The described path pursues the aim of raising people's awareness by initial activities, which should entail their modified behaviour. This strategy 's asset is that the realization of examples already in the initial phase of the awareness raising process makes individual success stories visible faster and people can more easily handle them or are more easily motivated. Activities carried out so far emphasized on strengthening regional economy. This resulted in awareness raising processes towards sustainable development also in other spheres.

In Bad Goisern, a large scale game was launched as an activity for strengthening local supply enterprises. In a large scale enclosed card activity for customers in all shops, rub-off cards with local supply images (involving family Clever) were distributed for participation in several competitions as stickers in collectors' albums. Another activity involved the creation of task groups aiming at regional cooperation in agriculture, and the creation of unified brands, packaging and advertising. These measures influence buying behaviour of the population and stimulate the consideration of possibilities of change and modification in other spheres of life as well.

An aspect of the activity "pro-local supply" crucial for awareness raising is the involvement of the whole municipality: kindergarten, schools, clubs, social infrastructure, enterprises, town council, mayor and all households. This creates an intensive discussion of the topic of local supply beyond political party boundaries, long-term work for the future and sustainable safeguarding of the quality of life. By not forcing a ready-made package of measures on every municipality, ideas and solutions can be found and realized for each individual municipality with its local and regional needs, deficits and potential. By responsibly utilizing the underlying structure of the quality of life in the location, identification of citizens with the municipality can be raised, especially among the young. Preparedness for activity and for cooperation rise along with personal involvement. Joint activities raise integration of immigrated families or individuals with the community, and the creation of new local perspectives for the future reduces the tendency to migrate out.

"Building site quality of life", this could be a summary of realization strategies for the concept of sustainable development. At the centre are quality considerations about the contents of individual spheres of life. In order to put this new quality of life into practice, all areas which affect it, from economy to spatial planning and education, have to be used as target oriented instruments. Consumption in this sense does not mean collecting material

6 goods, but responsible participation in this new form of quality of life.

II. The path toward modifying behaviour patterns

Three studies presented hereunder will serve as example of the significance attached to sustainable consumption behaviour in Austria and whether changes and modifications are society's aim. Questions on traffic, infrastructure and local supply (especially farmers' direct marketing) shall provide a concrete analysis.

1. Description of case studies

These studies were carried out in three Upper Austrian municipalities in 1997. In the course of a cooperative development process, the whole population was invited to contribute. In this way, the future of the respective municipality should be established for the next 10 years together with all citizens. What was in the foreground was not achieving sustainable consumption behaviour, but in cooperation to plan the best path with the best goal for a sustainable future municipal policy.

All three municipalities are situated in the environs of larger central units and all still show a relatively high agrarian structure. In all municipalities, traffic movements from and to the larger centres and local supply are significant in the lives of their inhabitants.

The municipalities of Munderfing and each have about 2 500 inhabitants and are situated near the Upper Austrian capital Braunau (about 18 000 inhabitants) and the city of Salzburg (145 000 inhabitants; about 50 kilometers' distance). The municipality of Feldkirchen numbers about 5 000 inhabitants and is situated 15 km from the Upper Austrian provincial capital of Linz (about 213 000 inhabitants).

After interested inhabitants had been invited to contribute their ideas for the whole development process, all inhabitants were again personally confronted with the resulting findings in a comprehensive questionnaire containing results from the previous discussion process.

A total of 1 327 persons participated in Eggelsberg (this represents 86 % of all inhabitants over 16 years of age); 1 773 in Munderfing (80 % of all inhabitants); 1 697 (about 45 % of all inhabitants) participated in the personal poll. The number of questioned persons in all three municipalities amounted to a total of 4 800 persons.

2. Results

It is significant that in a common evaluation of future goals for all three municipalities those areas which doubtless constitute ecological sustainability (promoting alternative sources of energy, supporting environmental protection even when expenses are involved....) met overall positive support by the inhabitants. In a list of personal priorities, these areas range, however, among the less important wishes. Thus, issues of personal economic security (such as establishment of new enterprises) and material existence are rated more significant by the younger and older generations.

Inhabitants' lives are subjectively most impaired by individual traffic. What is significant

7 in this context is that in all municipalities, about 45 % of all inhabitants complain about too fast driving within the municipal area and that one in four inhabitants is affected by traffic noise.

Moreover, it is significant that in all municipalities, the overwhelming majority of inhabitants support contemporary goals of sustainable spatial settlement development.

Questions on settlement development: which of the following statements would you be inclined to support ?

Building ground: MU* FK* EG* earmark in the vicinity of infrastructure 58% 73% 54% earmark irrespective of infrastructure 16 % 17% 22% no answer 25 % 10 % 24 % ______Public transport: build dwellings near public transport 60 % 79 % 59 % dwellings independent of public transport 18 % 9 % 17 % no answer 22 % 12 % 25 %

Notes: Mu* for Munderfing, FK* for Feldkirchen, EG* for Eggelsberg

There is widespread agreement that the municipality should make active land policy by the acquisition of property which will then be available for building purposes. The aim is to serve the goals of well-organized spatial planning In all three municipalities, at least every other person works outside. On average, 70 % of all movements (not on foot) are carried out by car or motorcycle, and about 15-20 % by bus and about 10 % by bicycle.

Our task should be to follow up those questions that aim at changing traffic behaviour or consumption behaviour; for this purpose, the question of farmers' direct marketing shall be more thoroughly investigated.

Generally it is significant that measures which promote environment friendly behaviour cause scepticism among the population "if they cost the general public something". Half the inhabitants are for such measures, half are opposed. What is significant is that, the younger inhabitants are, support of environment friendly measures and the personal expenses entailed grows, while opposition grows the older they are.

The question as to whether those inhabitants who presently drive to work using their own car would change in favour of train or bus if departure times from their municipality suited them, 60 % declared that they would not do away with their car even in that case; 20 % would rather go by bus or train, and 20 % expressed no opinion. Only 5 % stated that they would change in favour of alternative means of transport such as taxi pools (Munderfing).

The (apparent) general satisfaction with local supply is significant, although for the majority of products, long distances have to be taken into account. In this question, in all municipalities, the elderly inhabitants are generally an exception. A considerable number of them complain about local supply. Accordingly in all three municipalities, there are more wishes for offers of clothing and shoes, "supermarket" and chemist.

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A more detailed analysis was worked out for farmers' direct marketing. It springs to attention that 57 % of all inhabitants do not feel sufficiently informed about what is on offer. Only 16 % feel sufficiently and 20 %, adequately informed (Eggelsberg).The study of Munderfing reveals that one in four inhabitants buys directly from the farm once a week, 15 % every other week, 20 % once a month and every third, never. Preferred purchase of farm products takes place at the farmers' market (38 %) and in the shop (22 %). 20 % want to shop directly from the farm and 18 %, in a specialized farm shop. Three quarters of inhabitants would consider a continual farmers' market important. Of them, 45 % want to buy farm products once a week, every third, once every other week, the remainder more rarely. Most popular are dairy products, meat, vegetables, bread and eggs.

Conditions considered very important by the inhabitants in order to sell farm products:

1 Knowing by whom the product is supplied 72 % 2 Thourough quality control of products 71 % 3 Organic production 64 % 4 Price not higher than in the shop 45 % 5 Convenience of shopping 28 % 6 Products which are not available otherwise 27 % reasons 6 %

3. Résumé

There is a contradiction between what people say collectively and how individuals act in the end. Individual freedom of the individual as superior basic value of democratic societies hampers a movement toward sustainable behaviour patterns and feeds individual selfishness.

Behaviour changes are successful if the individual gains a genuine personal "added value" as a result of modifying his or her behaviour. This is only possible if a superior generally accepted norm is prescribed (by law) or, better still, is developed collectively and thereby, accepted.

Personal added value can be achieved as a result of more prestige (to be "in", to have a better image...), to have more power (more influence, to belong, to have a say,...), more money (to earn more , to have to spend less, to get something for free, to be able to afford more,...) or to gain more gratification (convenience, adventure, playfulness,...). This is especially visible in the field of public transport and environment protection. It is clearly visible that not only financial matters are an incentive for sustainable behaviour. Choosing farm products has shown this especially. Main problem is the still insufficient information or insufficient interlinkage and communication of initiative persons and groups, etc. with each other in the municipality, but also regionally and intra-regionally. It has to be clearly stated that individual initiative may remain scattered as long as there is no organized interlinkage.

A possible path successfully chosen for the three municipalities is launching of a collective process of change which produces a collective added value. Behavioural change in the area of spatial planning, which is a very touchy subject in Austrian municipalities, shall

9 serve as an example. Collective awareness in all three municipalities strives toward a clear decision in favour of sustainable municipality development. All jointly developed measures aim at curbing indiscriminate spread of settlements, the creation of synergies for local supply or decreasing individual traffic. Individuals keep wishing for pursuing their habitual lifestyle- idyll and the "dream of one's own family house" . This individual selfishness hinders meaningful planning in the Austrian municipalities. Only in the collective process of change, broader acceptance can be expected also for more rigorous measures (stop of indiscriminate spread of settlement). At the same time it is evident that a modified approach is more likely where a new start is possible together (without preferential treatment of individuals - confer wish for public transport connection of new residential settlements).

III. Sustainable consumption patterns and mobility - Understanding and influencing individual transport behaviour

1. Current trends and conditions of actual individual transport behaviour

The extensive still growing use of cars in the western industrialised countries produces global as well as regional and local problems. Looking at the development in Eastern European countries and countries on other continents, e.g. in China, stresses the importance of finding solutions for the expanding car use. Substituting as much as possible individual transport by car by individual mobility through cycling combined with the promotion of different forms of public transport could contribute to coping with the following global environmental impact:

• energy consumption • concentration of CO2 • ozone reduction in the atmosphere.

Promotion of alternatives to private car use could furthermore help to diminish the following severe regional and local traffic problems:

• accidents • noise • traffic density • parking problems • air pollution.

All these negative consequences of car-use are aggravated by still growing speeds in all transport systems. Futhermore high speed combined with low cost of transport has negative economic consequences for regional development and employment rates. Despite this most of us judge car use emotionally: „We still think of cars as they once were, not as they are today„ (Zuckermann 1991). These traffic related problems make it necessary to search for acceptable forms of individual mobility instead of car-use.

There are remarkable differences between different groups of population concerning their modes of traffic participation. There exist great differences in mobility patterns with regard to sex, age and employment. With decision makers, one has to consider that they are a target group with less sustainble patterns of individual travel behaviour than other groups of the population. Their every day experience in traffic is that of car-users and that determines

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Their view on traffic related problems. Children under 6 years of age already experience the importance of transport by car in every other journey outside their homes.

Resuming the results of several studies on the motives of traffic participation the following three categories can be considered generally important for most target groups and most occasions: • independence • comfort • saving time.

The following motives are ususally of secondary importance, but for certain target groups and certain purposes they can dominate the choice of traffic mode:

• cost • safety • environmental protection • enjoyment.

When considering the present infrastructure for transportation in most towns and regions and analyzing legislation and organisation of traffic, these motives are much more likely to be satisfied by individual modes of transport than by public transport systems which are mainly discussed, if one thinks of changing mode of transport. From a psychological point of view reducing mobility by private cars in our towns without provoking reactance and the foundation of car driver parties means promoting cycling as an every day mode of transport.

2. Preconditions for sustainable individual travel behaviour patterns

Literature analysis of the concept of responsible individual transport behaviour leads to an integrative view on environmental protection and traffic safety problems. Referring to social and ecological compatibility and the already mentioned hierarchy of different modes of traffic participation means promoting a preference for walking and cycling as most desirable, and substituting public transport for individual car use.

A useful theoretical guideline for influencing behaviour patterns is the action theoretical view, which takes into account the importance of the subjective perspective and especially the influence of values on concrete actions. It is important to refer to environmental psychological reflections on psychological barriers, action barriers and action incentives and on the effectiveness of concrete acting for habit changes.

The concept of Fietkau & Kessel on environmental learning can be applied to the field of mobility and can demonstrate how to promote sustainable individual travel behaviour patterns. One can derive the following action relevant preconditions for a socially and environmentally compatible choice of mode of transport, that means for sustainable mobility patterns:

• Knowledge about the connection between different modes of traffic participation and their consequences for accident risks and environmental

11 impacts. • Orientation toward values such as „life„, „health„, „social responsibility„ „environmental protection„ instead of „maximum performance capacity„, „rivalry„ and „speed„. • Creation of an infrastructure which facilitates walking, cycling or the use of trains, trams and busses and - on the other hand - makes it more difficult to use a car everywhere and to drive at high speeds. • Providing materialistic and idealistic incentives which promote traffic behaviour that is desirable from the point of road safety and environmental protection. • Experiencing positive and pleasant consequences of a materialistic or idealistic kind as a reward for responsible acting in road traffic.

Based on these principles, an empirical study was promoted by the Austrian Ministry for the Environment, Youth and Family, by the Austrian Ministry for Transport in cooperation with the Municipality of Vienna, Vienna Public Transport (Wiener Linien) and the joint regional public transport for the eastern region (VOR).

3. A case study on environmental learning on the way to and back form work

The study’s goal was to influence the individual choice of travel mode to and from work. The intervention consisted of a „four weeks passenger test„ and group discussions in four training units on the following topics:

1. Changing of perspective. Joy and anger on the daily way to and from work. 2. How precious is our daily mobility? Overt and covert costs of transportation. 3. Time and speed. Treatment in daily traffic. 4. Passenger test preparation and personal route counselling.

The effectiveness of the intervention has been investigated with regard to individual choice of travel mode to and from work using quantitative and qualitative social scientific methods. The results concerning environmental problems and modal choice, experiencing of the daily way to and from work and claims to qualities of transportation modes show the range of individual differences and the necessity of a target group and situation centred approach.

The interpretation of the interviews identifies five types of experiencing individual travel behaviour:

1. The public transport passenger „type joy/comfort“. 2. The public transport passenger „type usefulness/forced choice“. 3. The mixed user of travel modes „type usefulness/comfort“. 4. The car driver „type usefulness/forced choice“. 5. The car driver „type joy/comfort“.

The study gives evidence that taking part in group discussions and in the four weeks passenger test could change perception and behaviour of some employees with regard to their individual travel behaviour. Participation, however, was very limited because of unfavourable

12 external factors (announcement of 20,000 dismissals world wide during the running of the study). Indirect impact however can be observed threefold: First, Vienna Public Transport (Wiener Linien) has meanwhile installed special service counselling firms. Secondly, other studies on traffic demand management concentrating on the way to and back from work including firms and institutions in Vienna. Thirdly, in the near future, an engagement of the municipality department for the environment of Vienna is planned under the label of climate- oriented actions of the Municipality of Vienna.

Despite the limited immediate impact, there are important results of this case study. It shows that everyday public transport passengers often touch the limits of tolerance. Public transport enterprises should pay more attention to the demands of their passengers. Otherwise those will be the car drivers of tomorrow. What is required is a passenger-oriented organisation of public transport that includes organisational changes in personal development and education within the public transport units.

Traffic-relevant environmental knowledge, planning of feasible infrastructure and incentives for concrete actions - like e.g. passenger tests - can encourage people in changing their mode of traffic participation.

Persons using busses, trains and trams do not only need an attractive public transport system if they are expected to travel as much as possible not using cars. The independence, privacy and the joy of movement associated with car driving can only be experienced by individual mobility like walking or cycling. Traffic and environmental policies oriented toward sustainability therefore demand implementation of facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. That means gaining new passengers and keeping the present will be most successful by promoting „Go & Ride„ and „Bike & Ride„ prior to Park & Ride„.

4. Examples for promising steps towards sustainable mobility in Austria

The Austrian National Environment Plan (NUP -published in 1995) includes transport - besides energy; industry and manufacturing; agriculture, forestry and water and tourism and recreation – as one of the five main topics. The promotion of public awareness is an inherent part of the Austrian Environmental Policy.

The following measures relating to passenger services are proposed in the sector „Public relations and awareness-raising“ of the NUP:

Initiation of concerted public relations campaigns and instruction on traffic behaviour to raise awareness for traffic related environmental impacts and to motivate compatible dríver behaviour. Emphasising an information campaign that explains the advantages of measures regulating the choice of transport and polishes the image of pedestrian traffic, bicycling and public transportation. Distribution (free of charge) of readily comprehensible brochures on public transport timetables, routes and tariffs throughout Austria and making them available at all junctions. Promotion of the development of mobility plans that help institutions and businesses to reduce car traffic, for example through land-use planning and fiscal policies.

13 Examples for public awareness activities concerning individual travel behaviour are the annual anti-ozone campaigns, a campaign against noise („loud is out„) and a handbook for climate protection aimed at the target group „communities„.

The Austrian Ministry for the Environment, Youth and Family recently promoted several projects, especially aimed at influencing the individual choice of transport mode (some were in cooperation with other ministries, like the Ministry for Science & Transport and the Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs). These are as follows:

Ways to a car-free tourism„ by THALER, R. & FROSCH, W., a research project including a handbook for communities.

„Good purposes and reality: the discrepancy between knowledge and acting„ by PRASCHL, M., SCHOLL-KUHN, Ch. & RISSER, R..

„How much mobility is possible? Sustainable development and the joy of locomotion„ by SCHMIDT; G.A. & SCHMIDT; L. for the national environmental plan for schools.

„Influencing the modal choice on the way to and back form work by environmental learning in enterprises„ by SCHMIDT, L., DRUNECKY; G., KOSTENWEIN, W., LITTIG, B. & PROTZE, K.

„Handbook for mobility management consultants„ by KÄFER, A., REITER, K. and a team of other authors.

In cooperation with the Ministry for Science & Transport, different expert meetings in four working groups workshops took place in 1997 under the heading „Plan for gradual reduction of emissions in transport„. Although only one of the groups was especially concerned with individual travel behaviour and traffic demand management mobility, it was recognized in all working groups that one has to rely increasingly on strategies adapting knowledge from psychology, sociology and education in favour of influencing individual transport behaviour, such as working with incentives through competitions for different target groups, reinforcing good practice by prizes and promoting learning by model by publishing special exemplary initiatives in this field.

At the moment the Austrian Ministry for the Environment, Youth and Family, AVL- List Motor Company, Media-Enterprises Vorarlberg and the Province-Hospital Tulln conduct a model project to test the implementation of mobility management consulting helping institutions and enterprises to reduce the environmental impact of their transport policies. This project tries to integrate especially the experiences in the Netherlands with traffic demand management (TDM). It is a model of public private partnership, a cooperation between the Ministry for the Environment, Youth and Family, the Federal Agency for the Environment and the Austrian Chamber for the Economy. The public institutions want to provide an example of good practice and are associated in this project with three firms in different Austrian regions.

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