Mobility management stands for organizing ‘smart travel’ and focuses on reducing the amount of car mobility (particularly during peak hours) by stimulating travellers to refrain from travelling (telecommuting), to travel at a different time of day (avoiding peak hours) or to choose a different means of transport. Mobility management should result in, for instance, improved accessibility and less environmental impact; road safety is hardly mentioned as an objective. Mobility management can include many measures, so that it is difficult to arrive at generic statements about its effects. Yet, it has been shown that measures that can be seen as mobility management can reduce congestion during peak hours. Not much research has been carried out into the road safety effects of mobility management measures.
Summary
Mobility management stands for organizing ‘smart travel’ and focuses on reducing the amount of car mobility (particularly during peak hours) by stimulating travellers to refrain from travelling (telecommuting), to travel at a different time of day (avoiding peak hours) or to choose a different means of transport. Mobility management should result in, for instance, improved accessibility and less environmental impact; road safety is hardly mentioned as an objective. Mobility management can include many measures, so that it is difficult to arrive at generic statements about its effects. Yet, it has been shown that measures that can be seen as mobility management can reduce congestion during peak hours. Not much research has been carried out into the road safety effects of mobility management measures.
Background and content
The concept of mobility management was first introduced in the late 1990s (Goudappel Coffeng, 2006); nowadays it is a frequently used term. Mobility management includes measures such as the construction of park-and-ride facilities, the encouragement of telecommuting and the Spitsmijden project. ‘Spitsmijden’ is the Dutch term for ‘avoiding peak traffic’. These measures are often taken in order to improve traffic flow, but they can also have an effect on road safety. Road safety could also be taken into account more pro-actively when mobility management measures are being considered.
This fact sheet will examine the relation between mobility management and road safety, but will first discuss how to define mobility management and its effects.
What is mobility management?
Various definitions of the term mobility management circulate. Frequent use is made of the definition established by the knowledge centres within the Mobility Management Knowledge Alliance (CROW, KpVV, RWS-AVV, SenterNovem and VM2)1. The summary definition is as follows: “Mobility management is the organizing of smart travel.” (Goudappel Coffeng, 2006). The extensive definition is as follows: “Mobility management stands for organizing smart travel. Since the car cannot solve all problems, the traveller is encouraged to use alternatives such as bicycle, use of P+R, or telecommuting. Requirements and wishes of people travelling take up key position and the focus is on customized solutions. Governments, employers, crowd-pullers and mobility facility providers together organize the prerequisites that travellers can choose from.”
On the website of NL Agency (2011) the following description of mobility management can be found: “Mobility management is the encouragement of deliberate handling of mobility. Mobility management can help reduce the expected growth in passenger mobility, make better use of the current infrastructure and make it easier to reach locations.”
Mobility management therefore focuses on reducing the amount of car mobility (particularly during peak hours) by stimulating travellers to refrain from travelling (telecommuting), to travel at a different time of day (avoiding peak hours) or to choose a different means of transport. Reduction of the number of car kilometres is no aim in itself, but should result in greater accessibility and less environmental impact, for instance.