Vienna’s public transport system is among the best in the world. The network is dense and the frequency is tight. It is so well developed that you don’t even need to know the timetable. A total of 2.61 million people are transported from A to B by public transport here every day. The popularity can also be seen in the modal split, because: The public transport users have overtaken the car drivers. Around 38 percent of the distances are covered by public transport, while “only” 27 percent are covered by car. But what makes vienna different from other cities?

Jakob Muus is the founder and CEO of Tracks, a Berlin-based tech company with the goal of making road freight transport more efficient and sustainable through modern technologies. The platform developed by Tracks provides its users with analyses and recommendations for action, with which they can reduce the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of their fleet. This not only improves the environmental balance but also the competitiveness of participating companies.

An ever increasing urbanization of our society is clearly visible. Young people in particular are increasingly moving their centre of life from rural regions to the cities. In addition, there are many commuters who do not want to live directly in the urban jungle, but who find well-paid jobs mainly in the cities. This congestion in the cities and the associated additional traffic flows have consequences – especially for our increasingly grey planet. But what challenges must urban public transport face in times of the mobility change? And what role will it itself play in this?

Whether in the city or in rural areas, everyone agrees on one thing: to protect our planet, we all need to become greener again. Not only in the household many people are making an effort to consume wisely and are once again considering whether they should use plastic bags or eat meat every day. There is also a rethink on mobility issues. Especially for Generation Z, travelling by plane is no longer “state of the art”. Last year, the DB recorded 150.7 million customer trips which also shows that many people care about their green footprint.

Almost 16 million people live in rural regions throughout Germany. For them it is often a difficult task to get from A to B by public transport. After all, rural regions are at the back of the queue when it comes to expanding public transport. But why is the accessibility of these regions so poor and public transport hardly an alternative? How can it be guaranteed that people living in rural areas can also be mobile in a climate-friendly and cost-effective way?

Tijen Onaran is the founder of the company Global Digital Women. Here, she is committed to the networking and visibility of women in the digital industry. In addition, Tijen advises companies on diversity issues, publishes articles in well-known media outlets such as Manager Magazine and moderates various events on topics of current interest to her.

Don’t worry, in this article we will not refresh the basics of business studies again. Rather, we would like to examine the extent to which the theory, which may already be somewhat dusty but is still valid and authoritative, can be combined with our daily practice, the transformation of public transport.

Silke Höhl is a PhD student at the Research Lab for Urban Transport (ReLUT) at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. The construction and industrial engineer won the “Best Idea 2019” competition at the Allianz Pro Schiene Innovation Award 2019. Her concept: an innovative parcel delivery service. Hereby, the idea is not to create a new transport infrastructure, but to use public transport that is already well developed in the cities. The idea: underground and tramways take care of transporting the parcels to the city centres and a load wheel takes care of the last few kilometres to the front door.

Mobility is often still a resource-intensive undertaking – in every respect: Too many cars on the road cause a high level of environmental pollution, loosely set timetables mean an immense loss of time and excessively large containers and empty runs – especially in rural areas and at off-peak times – take their financial toll.

Better air, blue skies and significantly fewer vehicles on the roads: The Corona crisis has given our planet a little well-earned rest. This is because of the positive effects in terms of lower CO2 emissions during the pandemic. A recent study shows that the restrictions on public life have also reduced global emission numbers drastically.

We are currently observing a greater change in the world of work than ever. While yesterday home office was an exception, today we work smoothly in virtual teams. At the same time, our approach to mobility is changing as well. In times of uncertainty, we need reliable and needs-based solutions that get us safely through (working) everyday life more than ever. This is a requirement that future-oriented employers have not only recently started to meet.

Mobility is not only a prerequisite for economic growth, innovation and trade, but also for the personal well-being of people. It opens opportunities both for individual transport and for the community as a whole and is a global phenomenon with a local dimension. One mobility solution does not exist. In rural areas, for example, completely different mobility requirements can be identified compared to urban agglomerations. If we draw the line a little wider and look at mobility in an international comparison, it becomes clear that economic, cultural and geographical differences have a significant influence on our understanding of mobility.