A new iSPACE project is developing a method for assessing mobility costs and options, paving the way for the creation of a Mobility Certificate.
Location, location, location – this is often emphasized as the most important criterion when looking for a home. But in many cases, precisely this kind of information is missing in the housing search: How good is the transport connection, and what effort and costs are to be expected to get from A to B? This is despite the fact that the choice of residential location significantly influences everyday mobility, a person’s time expenditure and energy consumption, and also the costs – whether for fuel, public transport tickets, or bicycle maintenance.
This is why the A++ project has been launched, which aims to develop a Mobility Certificate for locations that highlights mobility costs and environmental impacts. The project team of this FFG-funded project consists of the project lead Herry Consult, the Graz Energy Agency, and the iSPACE Studio of the Research Studios Austria..
The Mobility Certificate is intended to follow the color and letter scheme of the Austrian Energy Performance Certificate and thus make visible not only the expected energy consumption but also the expected mobility costs and mobility effort. As a result of the project, a prototype of the Mobility Certificate will be created, defining which input data form its basis and how these are aggregated into key indicators.
In addition to a static assessment, the project will also show how, for example, data on the future residents’ mobility behavior can dynamically feed into the evaluation and thus individualize the Mobility Certificate. Using GIS and other methods, the prototype spatial implementation of the Mobility Certificate will be carried out, enabling location-specific modeling of input data and key indicators. To test transferability and applicability, a pilot application will be carried out in cooperation with a nationwide real estate platform and a property developer.
The far-reaching medium- and long-term consequences of choosing a location are difficult for most people to assess. Often, a property is chosen that appears attractive in terms of price and living quality at the time of decision-making, without properly considering the follow-up mobility costs. By developing and testing a standardized, transferable mobility assessment for residential real estate for the first time, A++ makes a contribution to sustainable mobility planning in Austria. By providing the Mobility Certificate, the selection of residential locations with good public transport connections or suitable infrastructure for active mobility in the surrounding area is to be promoted. As a result, the choice of transport modes by residents can become more sustainable, and CO₂ emissions in the transport sector can be reduced.
