Brief description
A cross-border traffic model to assist with the establishment of improved transport planning strategies for the Vienna – Bratislava region
Region Internal EU borders
Countries Austria (AT) – Slovakia (SK)
Location AT: Vienna-Lower Austria- Burgenland

SK: Bratislava-Trnava

Type of project partners Municipalities
Regional government units
Size (total budget including EU grants) Over € 500,000
Main themes Research, technological development, innovation and ICT
Transport and public infrastructures
Keywords (Types of Activities) Research and studies
Keywords (Aspects of Good Practice) Genuine cross-border dimension
Genuine cross-border impact
Innovative
Good sustainability
Background and Objectives With the fall of the Iron Curtain and Slovakia acceding to the EU, border controls with Austria were abolished and the liberalisation and mobility of the labour market followed. The ensuing economic integration of the new EU member states resulted in a big increase in traffic volumes particularly with regard to private use of car transport. The regions Vienna-Lower Austria-Burgenland and Bratislava-Trnava were especially affected. To handle this increase, steps had to be taken in establishing a common transport policy and improving infrastructure. An assessment of transport infrastructure investments on a sound basis had to be undertaken based on transport models. Before this project was introduced only stand-alone transport models existed on each side of the border and did not support the assessment and planning of transport infrastructure investments on a sound cross-border basis.

Objectives

  • establishing a cross-border model entirely covering both private and public motorised transport.
  • making data and the model public and accessible to any interested party.
Main activities The following activities were carried out:

  • As a first step, existing traffic models and data were brought together in a consolidated cross-border model.
  • This model was calibrated by traffic measurements. Structural data about the population, the labour market etc. were gathered to calculate flows of traffic. Future flows of traffic could also be integrated and forecast by these means.
  • In cooperation with planning- and decision-making units, future steps were defined. Subsequent decisions in traffic planning will be based on the prognoses of the traffic model.
Main results The project resulted in the creation of a cross-border model to support the infrastructure planning process in the cross-border area.

This model is intermodal, covering private car transport as well as public transport (bus, rail, underground), bike traffic and pedestrians. In addition the results of the study are accessible to all possible interesred parties such as public authorities and public transport agencies and associations.

Aspects of good practice This is a pure cross-border project which is also particlarly strong on innovation and with excellent sustainability potential.

It is an ambitious project ultimately aiming to build a cross-border transport model and infrastructure investment plans for the CENTROPE region (a multinational cross-border region encompassing regions and provinces of four Central European countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia). As such, a broader project is realised with support under three ETC programmes: SK-AT, AT-CZ and AT-HU.

Start and completion dates:
October 2009 – September 2012
More information http://www.ivv.tuwien.ac.at/forschung/projekte/international-projects/vkm-en.html

http://www.sk-at.eu/sk-at/projekte/detail/en/beschreibung.php

Lead Partner Technische Universität Wien

Institut für Verkehrswissenschaften (TU Wien)

Forschungsbereich für Verkehrsplanung und Verkehrstechnik

Gusshausstraße 30/230

1040 Wien

Tel.: +43 (1) 588 01 23123

Fax: +43 (1) 588 01 23199

E-Mail: angelika.haller@tuwien.ac.at