Concern about the consequences of the climate crisis is the strongest motivation for people in Germany to change their own mobility behavior. This is the central result of a representative opinion poll commissioned by the digital association Bitkom. A good half (55 percent) of those surveyed said that the climate crisis was the reason why they had fundamentally changed their mobility behavior in recent years.
But the prices for public transport and fuel also play an important role. For example, 41 percent of those surveyed named the 9-euro ticket and the increased prices for petrol and diesel fuel as motives. For 30 percent, the fear of being infected with the corona virus played a role. 17 percent drew consequences from the chaos at airports. For 16 percent, the more frequent work in the home office was the most important factor, for 7 percent the absence of business trips.
“Climate, Corona and costs – for these three reasons people are changing their mobility behavior,” said Bitkom CEO Bernhard Rohleder on Tuesday.
Crisis winner bike
The bicycle benefits the most: 39 percent of those surveyed say that they use the bicycle more often. A quarter (25 percent) rely more frequently on so-called on-demand offers such as ride pooling or ride hailing. With ride pooling like Moia in Hamburg, car pools are automatically formed by customers who have a similar destination. With ride hailing with providers such as Uber or Bolt, the customer books a car with a driver via an app and has the ride exclusively for himself, similar to a taxi ride.
The bottom line is that people use their own car less often than before: 22 percent say that they use their car more often, but 36 percent leave it at home more often. 22 percent also travel more frequently by bus and train in local transport, but 37 percent less frequently. According to the survey, the big losers of the mobility turnaround are long-distance rail transport, taxis and airplanes. 10 percent travel by train more frequently for long-distance travel, 35 percent do so less frequently. Only two percent get in a taxi more often, but 46 percent less often. The change is even more dramatic in air travel: Two percent use the plane more often, 75 percent less often.
Sharing offers, where you can rent bicycles, e-scooters, cars or mopeds for individual routes, are also growing from a low starting level. 22 percent use bike sharing services at least occasionally. A year ago it was only 16 percent. For car sharing, the value rose from eight percent in 2021 to 13 percent, and for e-scooter sharing from 13 percent to 16 percent. Rohleder said sharing has great potential. “Especially if it is possible to expand the offers from the inner city to the outskirts or even to the countryside, where they could develop the greatest potential in addition to the often inadequate public transport offer.”
