Keywords

1 Introduction

1.1 Problem Definition

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in all mobility-related areas. Measures are increasingly taken to reduce pollutant emissions. New forms of sustainable mobility arise extending the range of options. The German Sustainability Strategy stipulates that final energy consumption in passenger transport is to be reduced by 15–20% by 2030 compared to 2005 (Becker and Hoffmann 2018). However, it did not lead to a significant change in final energy consumption so far. This can be explained by the fact that the total amount of passenger transport has risen continuously since 2005 and that the share of motorized private mobility in total transport volume has also risen slightly over the same period (Nobis et al. 2019).

The proportion of traffic generated by travels to the workplace or additional business trips has increased even more in comparison. Business traffic in particular has almost doubled in recent years in terms of the number of trips. Combined work and business traffics currently account for the largest share of total transport volume (Follmer and Gruschwitz 2019). This should be viewed critically, especially regarding the choice of transport mode. Almost two thirds of all trips by full-time workers are carried out by motorized private modes of transportation. This figure is even higher for business purposes (Nobis et al. 2019).

On the other hand, for university students, a much greater flexibility and sustainability in mobility behaviour are becoming apparent. Nobis et al. (2019) found that the share of motorized private mobility among students for transfer to and from university was only 14% in 2017 and has decreased steadily in recent years. The shares of the carbon neutral modes of transportation such as public transportation, bicycle and on foot are much larger here as opposed to people who work full time. Public transport, in particular, has considerably higher shares (Nobis et al. 2019).

The goal of this study is to find out if the choice of carbon neutral means of transportation during the years of study leads to a noticeably higher usage of sustainable mobility in the years after finishing the degree. This would suggest a link between students’ mobility behaviour on the way to university and their behaviour later in their careers.

1.2 Research Definition

There has been hardly any research on the relationship between mobility behaviour during the study period and later working life which is the focus of this study conducted with graduates of the University of Applied Sciences, Stuttgart. The university is located in the city centre of Stuttgart and is close to a multitude of bus stops and train stations. This makes the use of public transportation especially appealing as an alternative to private motorized vehicles. The basis for this research project was earlier studies on the choice of transport and mobility behaviour of students, which were carried out at the Competence Centre Mobility and Transport (MoVe) of the University of Applied Sciences, Stuttgart, and other institutes (Heckmann 2019; Berghoff and Hachmeister 2018). The study results clearly show that the proportion of students at the University of Applied Sciences, Stuttgart, using sustainable transport for educational purposes is far above the state and national average. Their share of public transport in the total traffic volume is particularly high, and use of motorized private mobility is also correspondingly low. However, it is not possible to say whether and to what extent this sustainability exists in the long term after entering working life. This is the main motivation behind conducting this study.

2 Research Methodology

Due to the fact that the target group consists exclusively of graduates of the University of Applied Sciences, Stuttgart, the best method to collect data was to pursue an online survey, as this would reach almost all potential participants. The exact target group were graduates from the study courses “Infrastructure Management” and “Traffic Infrastructure Management” who have finished their studies within 2011 and 2020. The surveyed graduates were all asked to fill out the entire questionnaire, which means all of the collected data stems from one static group of people. It should also be noted that the surveys’ design allowed for skipping irrelevant questions, e.g. a graduate who has not worked since finishing their studies was not shown any survey questions relating to their mobility behaviour for their way to work. Thus, slightly varying sample sizes for different questions (see Chap. 6.3) were a result of this.

The questionnaire itself was divided into five sections or blocks. The first block included questions about mobility-related behaviours during college. This was followed by questions relating to the professional and occupational mobility of the participants at the beginning of their working lives. In the third section, questions were asked about current behaviour for work-related mobility. The first three sections mainly concentrated on values on the availability and use of modes of transportation, choice of main modes of transportation, selection factors for the choice of modes of transportation, frequency of use, duration and length of trips as well as frequency of business trips that were determined.

The fourth block included general questions on attitudes towards sustainable mobility, followed by questions on personal and socio-demographic characteristics. Many of the questions within the first three blocks were repeatedly asked, as these act as a timeline and thus allow comparability between the different sections. The survey was designed so that both quantitative and qualitative parameters were queried in order to obtain a comprehensive data set.

3 Data Evaluation

The collected data was comprehensively analysed, and the most important results are presented for the purpose of this paper. The survey data was compared with other studies. In addition, the evaluations of the first three question blocks of the graduate survey were compared to show the development of the participants’ mobility behaviour over time.

Roughly 370 people were asked to complete the survey, 91 of which were completed. This is a high response rate of about 25%. Out of those, 70 have started working since their graduation and were also asked to complete the second section of the survey pertaining to work-related mobility behaviour focusing on the first 6 months after being employed. Sixty-eight out of the remaining 70 participants have at least been working for more than 1 year since graduation and were also asked to fill out the third block of questions, which were primarily about their mobility behaviour for their way to work within the last 6 months at the time of taking the survey.

At the time of the survey, most participants were between 20 and 30 years old (74%). Twenty-four per cent were between 31 and 35 years old. There were no significant differences in the answer schemes probably due to the relatively small age range of the two groups. So age differences are not a relevant signifier regarding the following data evaluation, which is a first finding of this study.

3.1 Evaluation of Education-Related Mobility Behaviour

Public transport is the main mode of transport used by participants to get to college (see Fig. 6.1). A total of 77% of the respondents stated that they mainly used public transportation. In comparison, the amount of graduates who indicated using a bicycle as their main mode of transportation was 7.7%. For car users, this figure is only 3.3%.

Fig. 6.1
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Main mode of transportation used by the surveyed graduates for traveling to the University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart

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Especially in comparison with the results of the educational commuter survey of the microcensus, there is a clear tendency to show that public transport and sustainable mobility in general were used far more frequently by the surveyed graduates of the University of Applied Sciences, Stuttgart, and that only very few preferred the priority use of cars (Statistisches Bundesamt 2016).

The very strong use of public transport by students for their way to the University of Applied Sciences, Stuttgart, which was already established by previous studies conducted by the university itself, was able to be confirmed to a similar extent in this survey (Heckmann 2019). In a further evaluation, it is now to be examined whether the service provided by public transportation has been met with satisfaction among the participants. Of all survey participants who stated that they used public transport to get to university, 78.6% were satisfied or very satisfied with the service. This figure is slightly above the average value determined for metropolitan areas in the MiD (Mobilität in Deutschland) study (Follmer and Gruschwitz 2019). Likewise, only very few respondents were unsatisfied with the public transport situation for educational purposes (see Fig. 6.2). This means that the quality of public transport in Stuttgart is generally good, which indicates that the use of this mode of transportation was not adversely affected during the course of study.

Fig. 6.2
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Level of satisfaction of the surveyed graduates with public transportation for traveling to the University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart

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Furthermore, the efficiency of public transport in comparison to motorized private mobility for the trip to college was examined. For this purpose, values for mobility time (in minutes) and transport volume (in passenger kilometres) were determined for the various modes of transportation by means of information on route lengths and durations. This made it possible to form efficiency parameters that indicate the number of passenger kilometres per minute. This corresponds to 0.6 passenger kilometres per minute for public transport. The parameter for cars is 0.59 pkm/min. Thus, the use of a car for the way to the University of Applied Sciences, Stuttgart, cannot be classified as more efficient than public transportation. This means that, on average, the survey participants did not lose any time if they chose public transport instead of motorized private vehicles. This creates a better basis for the willingness to also choose sustainable mobility in later professional life.

3.2 Evaluation of Work-Related Mobility Behaviour After Graduation

Public transportation receives an overall share of about 43% of participants who use the said mode of transportation for most of their trips to work. This also means that the mode of transportation was most frequently used by the respondents at the start of their working lives (see Fig. 6.3). Although there is a clear decline compared to the education-related mobility, the figure recorded for commuting to work can still be regarded as very high. Motorized private mobility receives a total of 41.5%, almost a third of which is accounted for by company or business cars. The share of bicycle traffic has also increased slightly. The assumption that the results of this survey could be an indication of a more sustainable mobility behaviour of the graduates is made clear by a comparison with previous studies. The share of public transport is about three times higher than in the microcensus or the MiD study (Statistisches Bundesamt 2016; Nobis et al. 2019). At the same time, the use of motorized private vehicles decreases by about 25% in comparison to those studies. The share of bicycle traffic is roughly the same in all studies.

Fig. 6.3
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Main mode of transportation used by the surveyed participants for traveling to work after graduating

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In order to check the influence of population density or type of environment, evaluations were carried out on the basis of the information provided by the survey participants. First of all, the location of the workplace is considered. Almost half of the respondents worked in a city with over 500,000 inhabitants after completing the study. An additional 20% had a workplace in towns with over 100,000 to 500,000 inhabitants. The remaining third worked in places with a smaller population. Half of the said third even worked in very rural areas with a population of less than 10,000.

In order to identify possible correlations, the main mode of transportation was considered in relation to the number of inhabitants (see Fig. 6.4). This confirms that the participants almost exclusively use motorized private mobility as their main mode of transportation for trips to work in towns with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. Car use decreases with increasing population. At the same time, the use of public transportation in particular increases. In cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants, more than half of the participants used public transportation to get to work. Similarly, cycling and walking in urban areas are more likely to be considered for work-related mobility. This is mainly due to the fact that more respondents have to travel shorter distances to reach their workplace and that the use of these modes of transportation is therefore a reasonable option. All in all, a higher degree of sustainability in the context of commuting can thus be observed among the surveyed graduates, particularly when living and working in urban areas. The efficiency of public transportation in those areas is comparable to that of motorized private vehicles. In most cases, the mobility behaviour from education-related mobility can be continued without additional obstacles. The shorter average commuting distances also mean that using a bicycle or walking is a realistic option for more respondents. In rural regions or places with low population, private motorized transport is almost exclusively seen as the only sensible option, as public transport is associated with high losses of time and flexibility.

Fig. 6.4
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Main mode of transportation used by the surveyed participants for traveling to work after graduating by population

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3.3 Evaluation of Current Work-Related Mobility Behaviour

The surveyed graduates chose a car more often as the main mode of transportation later in their career than at the beginning of their employment (see Figs. 6.3 and 6.5). Both the share for private and company car usage has increased. Overall, public transportation sees a decrease of about 5%, although the overall share of 38.3% is still well above the average values of the microcensus or the MiD study. Even now environmentally friendly mobility is still primarily chosen by slightly more than half of the respondents for commuting to work and thus, despite the decline, represents a much higher proportion compared to the microcensus or MiD, in which it accounts for only about one third. As public transportation in particular has lost shares, one reason for this could be a greater regional shift of participants to places with more rural structures. Here it is more likely that cars will be chosen as the main mode of transportation.

Fig. 6.5
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Main mode of transportation used by the surveyed graduates for traveling to work currently

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Over the period under study, respondents have increasingly moved to cities with populations of less than 500,000. In the year of the study conduct 2020, the majority of the surveyed graduates work or live in cities with up to 100,000 inhabitants. Thus, over the period under study, more graduates have moved to rural or suburban areas. This migration could explain why motorized private mobility is used more in the current occupational situation, especially if both workplace and a participant’s home are outside of a large city. In this case, the probability of using a mode of transportation other than a car for commuting to work decreases significantly.

The evaluation of the choice of main mode of transportation by population segments validates the assumption of increased relevance of motorized private vehicles outside large cities (see Fig. 6.6). Regarding all categories of less than 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants, more respondents, both in terms of pure number and proportionately, used the car more often as their main means of work-related mobility. As a result, public transportation is becoming even less important in these segments and is being considered even less frequently. A very high usage of sustainable transport can be observed for the group of participants whose place of work has a population of more than 100,000. Here, environmentally friendly means of transport are used by the surveyed university graduates just as much as at the beginning of their working lives.

Fig. 6.6
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Main mode of transportation used by the surveyed graduates for traveling to work currently by population

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4 Conclusion

In comparison to other studies, sustainable mobility is used much more often at the beginning of employment to get to work than is generally the case for employed people.

The study shows that the very high use of public transport during college also leads to an increase in usage of public transportation for commuting to work. This development remains the same throughout the career.

However, other factors such as measures of company mobility management and the regional structures in which workplace and homes are located shape work-related mobility behaviour of graduates. This spurs or limits the influences created over the course of their studies.

The study shows that mobility behaviour during studies will be continued after graduation. Paving the way for more use of sustainable transport during college time will lead to a more conscious choice of mode of transportation in the long run. A sustainable design of mobility in the context of transportation for the purpose of education can significantly influence and improve the establishment of more environmentally friendly behaviour in work-related mobility.