Regiopolis Karlsruhe: Sustainable mobility beyond the city limits

Mobility transition measures are still too often limited to urban centers. Researchers at ITAS therefore explore the conditions under which people in peri-urban areas and rural regions can also change their mobility behavior.
Futuristic white bus in front of city skyline with trees. Adobe Stock
In the TRAMIGO and C2CBridge projects, ITAS explores how alternatives to the private car can become a success story also outside of cities.

The mobility transition can only succeed if it becomes attractive not only for people in cities but also in peri-urban and rural areas to combine different forms of mobility.

Mobility experts at ITAS are currently investigating how this multimodality in transport can be achieved in two projects using the example of the Karlsruhe regiopolis. The project team does not view the city as an isolated island, but rather sees its residential, workplace, and recreational centers as structures networked with their surrounding areas.

Real-world experiments on transport in the greater Karlsruhe area

At the heart of the “TRAMIGO” project, officially launched in February, is the question of how to make transport between Karlsruhe and its surrounding communities more climate-friendly. On the one hand, ITAS concentrates on the question of how regional interconnections of mobility can be regulated by the responsible authorities, i.e., on so-called governance processes. On the other hand, it examines the extent to which individual real-world experiments or large-scale real-world labs on new forms of transport can be planned and implemented.

Mobility needs in the region

In the “C2CBridge” project, ITAS focuses on the mobility needs of people in the region. The aim is to identify mobility types in different spatial categories. In doing so, the ITAS team accompanies the development of autonomous on-demand shared taxis as a supplement to existing public transport. “C2CBridge” is part of the German Center for Future Mobility (DZM), which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport.

The aim of both projects is to understand how new mobility services must be designed for people in peri-urban and rural regions so that they are not only technically feasible but also accepted by future users. (23.04.2025)

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