Research

Demographic change, changes in individual values or rising mobility costs are just some of the current developments that have a significant impact on transport demand. The Department of Transportation Planning and Systems examines current trends, analyzes the cause-effect relationships between space, transportation, and the environment, and develops concepts based on these analyses in order to achieve the goal of sustainable transportation. In addition to a broad knowledge of methods, the department can draw on years of experience and expertise in the fields of integrated transport planning, public transport and empirical social research.

The topic of the environment in transport is not only gaining in importance due to the discussion about climate change. Stricter EU regulations in the environmental areas of air and noise are increasing the pressure to develop solutions to reduce the environmental impact of transport. In this context, the department investigates the implementation and effectiveness of transport measures using empirical methods and model calculations. The question of the importance of electric vehicles and behavioral changes in reducing traffic-related environmental impacts is also being investigated.

The region of Northern Hesse is home to a large number of leading companies and research institutions in the fields of mobility management, transport planning and vehicle construction. In addition, the University of Kassel is one of the leading universities in the field of sustainability research. The department makes use of these locational advantages and the existing know-how through numerous cooperations; among others, through the cooperation in the "Competence Center for Climate Protection and Climate Adaptation (CliMA)" and in "MoWiN.net - Mobility Economy in Northern Hesse".
 

The focal points and core competencies of the department are in the areas of:

• Public passenger transport, incl. sharing systems,
• Methods of obtaining transport demand data (traffic surveys),
• transport causation research,
• models for mapping cause-effect relationships in passenger and freight transport (transport demand models)
• Transport and Environment.