Near-practice Teaching in the Field of Mobility Management - Requirements and Methodologies for Study Courses

Transport and mobility are continuously changing. Environmental impacts, particularly climate change processes, on the one hand, and development in society and technology, particularly digitalisation processes, on the other hand, are major challenges for sustainable and integrated planning and operation of transport and mobility. Since sustainable improvements in technical operations and – even more importantly – in infrastructure take many years of analysis, planning, preparation and construction, these are often not the most effective options when it comes to short-term requirements concerning behavioural change. The gap between the existing unsustainable transport system and future sustainable system exists because of many behavioural aspects, which are derived from misinformation, attitudes and lack of awareness. This is where mobility management comes into play. Mobility management uses ‘soft measures’ such as individual consultation, strategic communication and campaigns to achieve behavioural changes. This has been clearly proven by the evidence . The above-mentioned gap can therefore be filled, especially since mobility management seems to have started to become a stand-alone field of work. However, significant differences concerning mobility management exist worldwide. Although the implementation of mobility management started in the USA in the 1980s, today, Europe appears to be the driver of developments in this area. The so-called SUNflower states in particular, Sweden, United Kingdom and The Netherlands (but also other countries), are pioneers in this field. Other parts of the world, especially South America and Southeast Asia, still suffer from inadequate transport systems and/or non-integrated planning processes. Without these elements, which are the necessary framework and basic requirement for any approach towards mobility management, mobility management simply does not exist in these places. The positive experiences with mobility management, especially the fact that mobility management for companies (CMM) has become widely established, have however led to an increasing number of projects, initiatives and programmes, and – consequently – jobs in this field. It is an obvious fact that a field of work which aims to achieve behavioural changes within a technically driven world requires adequately specialised professionals for doing these jobs. The project thesis ‘Near-practice Teaching in the Field of Mobility Management’ reflects on the existing educational opportunities for learning mobility management, their upcoming development and new didactic standards. During five years of research, the author found out that mobility management has become very dynamic, so that new study courses (and additional vocational opportunities) in mobility management, which do not yet exist, are highly important to implement. This also requires a change of didactic methods concerning examination, evaluation and practical interaction. Moreover, the strategic focus of mobility management must change from transport engineering, including merely a small element of communication, to a 50/50-share of each. This share means that there is a very high need for educational quality. The proposed study courses shall therefore be at the Master’s degree level. Although a large volume of knowledge concerning education and jobs within mobility management was gained during the project, more research, especially evaluative and qualitative monitoring must follow for both the field of mobility management and the related educational opportunities