Alpine Awareness is a project co-financed by ERDF
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 What makes us tick….
Friends, school, job, movie, sport events…getting there and back: mobility and transport are part of our life.Children and youths: o walk more often o cycle more often o use public transport more often o go by car when there is no other means of transport They are experts in every day traffic situations because they make use of and know various transport modes aside from just the car. Also they are highly mobile. All this makes them pioneers of an innovative and intelligent mobility behaviour. 
Transport planning and policy often don´t consider the needs of youths
and policy often don´t consider the needs of youthsIn the last decades traffic planning and policy has been interested solely in smooth car traffic flow, other transport modes have not been taken into account. For youths this has in effect restrained their self-determined and independent mobility. For instance: o due to the high car traffic more and more parents drive their kids by car even for short trips. They are scared that their sons and daughters could bei involved in a car-accident when being en-route independently. o Young people have to cover longer distances to get from one place to another. Often a car is the only alternative to do this. o supply with good public transport connections which are balanced with the needs of youths are lacking. o Route and path networks for safe biking and walking don’t exist.
When becoming adults more and more youths start driving a car
Although children and youth have a very sustainable mobility behaviour, many of them start to become exclusively car drivers as soon as they have the possibility to get a driving license. By doing this they want to regain their independence.Car traffic since 1960 has increased seven-fold and it is growing still … One factor in continually rising car traffic is a “rigid” and sometimes too ”convenient” attitude and mobility behaviour of some adults, who use the car also for trips where other transport modes are more convenient. In Europe one out of four of all car trips are shorter than 2 km, every second car trip is shorter than 5 km.
Negative impacts for the environment and the general health are rising
These developments lead to more and more environmental problems such as air-pollution (impacts of PM10 – particulate matter, carbon dioxide, ozone, etc.), noise, climate change and others. Traffic related diseases and injuries such as allergies, asthma, lack of movemen tare increasing. In addition alpine regions are also affected by these changes. For instance global warming is for a large part caused by individual motorized car traffic and is one of the major reasons for reduced snow coverage, problems with ozone especially in “clean air” regions are also part of this complex detrimental situation. Actions to reduce environmental and health risks are increasingly necessary. But how can we achieve that more people change from car use to sustainable transport modes such as walking, cycling and using public transport and also bring traffic planners and politicians to offer choices for these transport modes?
Coachings for traffic planers and politicians
During the project “Alpine Awareness” youths are allowed to speak and express their needs, which should be integrated in regional transport planning concepts. They will be, maybe for the first time taken seriously. It is important to listen to youngsters’ opinion. Obviously not each idea can be directly implemented, however: some adults may thus realize that there are traffic participants who don´t drive a car.Various public awareness campaigns to reduce increasing individual motorization in regions of four European countries (Germany, Italy, France, Austria) will be developed and implemented. Transnational meetings will support the exchange of experience. Results and findings will be published on this site.  |
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