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Highlights
• Applies a biographically inspired practice-theoretical approach to understand everyday mobility from car-reduced neighborhoods.
• Investigates various ‘contexts’ and ‘practice bundles’ that shape car-(in)dependent mobility practices.
• Material, personal-temporal, and socio-cultural contexts of residents’ travel behavior in car-reduced neighborhoods stabilize and support car-independent mobility.
• The meanings (including emotions and feelings) of mobility practices determine their performance type.
• Calls for more car-reduced planning for the transition to low-carbon mobility.
Abstract
Lately, transport researchers and practitioners are showing renewed interest in car-reduced neighborhoods and their residents’ mobility to investigate possible factors influencing sustainable transport. With a biographically inspired practice-theoretical approach, this study considers the ‘context of travel behavior’ and, thus, focuses on mobility as a ‘practice’ in order to improve the understanding of everyday mobility as well as the potential and limitations of implementing car-reduced housing. Based on qualitative interviews with residents of two German car-reduced neighborhoods, we first identify different compositions of materials, competences, and meanings (including the feelings and emotions) of car-(in)dependent mobility practices. Second, we discover the personal, social, temporal, and socio-structural circumstances of the residents’ travel behavior alongside ‘practice bundles’ that interact with car-(in)dependent mobility. Finally, our findings indicate, on the one hand, that the car-centric material context outside car-reduced neighborhoods, the incorporation of private car driving with the practice of everyday life, and the affective satisfaction with car use and ownership negatively influence car independence. On the other hand, our results highlight that residential location and its materiality in the case of car-reduced housing developments, as well as the personal-temporal and socio-cultural contexts of their residents’ mobility practices stabilize and support car independence and low-carbon mobility.
Während sich die Fernverkehrsangebote auf der Schiene über Jahrzehnte hinweg und im Laufe eines kontinuierlichen Infrastrukturausbaus entwickelten, muss sich die städtische Verkehrsplanung in kurzer Zeit auf die neuen Angebote des Fernbuslinienmarktes einstellen. Dabei sehen sich die Städte mit verschiedenen Herausforderungen konfrontiert: Sie müssen Verknüpfungspunkte in Form von Fernbus-terminals vorhalten und sie stehen vor der Aufgabe, die Fernbuslinienangebote in die regionalen Verkehrssysteme zu integrieren. Durch die dynamische Entwicklung des Fernbusmarktes nach seiner Liberalisierung, den schnellen Ausbau der Linienverbindungen und den unvorhergesehenen Anstieg der Fahrgastzahlen waren die lokalen Akteure bislang kaum in der Lage, fundiertes Erfahrungswissen im verkehrsplanerischen Umgang mit Fernbuslinienangeboten aufzubauen. Das Projekt „Integration von Fernbuslinienangeboten“ nimmt sich am Beispiel der Stadt Frankfurt am Main den Handlungsnotwendigkeiten der städtischen Verkehrsplanung an und formuliert auf Grundlage einer Fahrgastbefragung an zwei Standorten mögliche Optionen aus der Perspektive der Fahrgäste. Dabei stehen insbesondere die Anforderungen an und Handlungsoptionen für die städtebauliche und verkehrliche Integration der Fernbuslinienangebote in lokale Verkehrssysteme im Fokus.
Worldwide, academics and practitioners are developing ‘planning-oriented’ approaches to reduce the negative impacts of car traffic for more sustainable urban and transport development. One such example is the design of car-reduced neighborhoods, although these are controversial issues in the hegemonic ‘system’ of automobility. Despite the reduction of emissions and frequent recognition as ‘best practice examples’, ‘planning-critical’ research questions the underlying objectives and narratives of such sustainable developments. Our study contributes to this research perspective by improving the understanding of narratives that emerge along with car-reduced housing developments. For this purpose, we analyze two car-reduced neighborhoods in the City of Darmstadt (Germany) by conducting interviews with different actors involved in the planning and implementation processes. Our investigation reveals that the development of car-reduced neighborhoods (i) is consciously embedded in the context of sustainability, (ii) is characterized by power relations, (iii) follows normative indicators, and (iv) does not always correspond to lived realities. Altogether, the traced narratives of car-reduced neighborhoods are embedded in the overarching debate on sustainability, while at the same time revealing the dependence of society on the automobile. Thus, the hegemonic ‘system’ of automobility—although it is beginning to crack—continues to exist.