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Digital Access to Mobility

The growing number of mobility apps changes the way we use transportation systems. Many apps even promise a more sustainable mobility, as they simplify finding the shortest and eco-friendliest route through combining different means of transportation. Even though digital access to mobility has many advantages, it needs to be considered that not everyone benefits from it equally. This particularly affects those who are not as tech-savvy or do not have access to sufficient financial resources. Considering this, it is important to ensure that the digitalization of mobility does not induce transport-related social exclusion.

In addition, we need to better understand how the public can take part in the process of digitalizing mobility. From an educational perspective, particularly younger generations play an important role as prospective users of mobility apps and public transit. Teachers and other multipliers are prompted to integrate sustainable development in to the educational curricular and thereby support the transformation to a more sustainable society.

Research objectives

To assess the effects of an increasingly digital access to mobility we study the development of mobility apps and the personal mobility needs of diverse user groups. We aim to include hard-to-survey groups such as elderly and economically disadvantaged people. Furthermore, we aim to gather perspectives of educators as well as young people in regards to transport-related social exclusion in the digitalization of mobility. The research will primarily take place in the cities of Hanover and Hamburg.

The project will be conducted by researchers at the Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography and the Institute for Science Education of the Leibniz University Hanover. Funding for the project is provided by the VolkswagenStiftung and the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony as part of the initiative Niedersächsisches Vorab.

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Research Area

The research will primarily take place in the cities of Hanover and Hamburg. Both areas have a diverse range of digital services for mobility but differ in size, population density and physical infrastructure. Because of that, they are particularly interesting case studies. The cooperation with Hanover Region allows insights in public transport planning and simplifies the realization of surveys. The Youth Innovation Center Hammerbrooklyn makes it possible to focus on perceptions of younger people.

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Research area Hanover Region – regional rail passenger transport & Ridesharing options

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Research area Hamburg – regional rail passenger transport & Ridesharing options

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The Team

Our team consists of researchers and young academics with the shared purpose of studying the on-going digitalization of access to mobility in regards of transport-related social exclusion. The research project is a cooperation of the Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography and the Institute for Science Education of the Leibniz University Hanover.

Project Lead

Prof. Dr. Christiane Meyer
Institute for Didactics of Natural Sciences
Tel. +49 511 762 18814
meyer@idn.uni-hannover.de
Am Kleinen Felde 30
30167 Hannover

Dr. Kerstin J. Schäfer
Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography
Tel. +49 511 762 19403
schaefer@wigeo.uni-hannover.de
Schneiderberg 50
30167 Hannover

Project Implementation

Jonas Koch
Institute for Didactics of Natural Sciences
Tel. +49 511 762 18803
koch@idn.uni-hannover.de
Am Kleinen Felde 30
30167 Hannover

Tomke van Hove
Institute for Didactics of Natural Sciences
Tel. +49 511 762 18802
van-hove@idn.uni-hannover.de
Am Kleinen Felde 30
30167 Hannover

Dmitry Boyko
Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography
Tel. +49 511 762 14985
boyko@wigeo.uni-hannover.de
Schneiderberg 50
30167 Hannover

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