Evaluating Options of Viennese Commuters to Use Sustainable Transport Modes

The 2-degree guardrail of global warming, together with accelerating urbanization and growing scarcity of oil, demands a redesign of todays’ sprawling cities in order to limit greenhouse gases and bring about efficiently built-up structures. In 2001, 42 percent of commuter paths within Vienna are traveled by private cars. This week-daily, recurring traffic pattern causes tons of Co2 and supports low-density housing at urban fringes. In front of this background, we employ an agent-based simulation model to evaluate if commuters in Vienna who currently use motorized modes (especially car-drivers) have options to change to low-carbon transport modes (pedestrian, bicyclist, public transport) without raising costs of travel time. Using a detailed network, the identified present and alternative routes can be displayed as edge-, node-, or zonal through-traffic, highlighting differences in transport mode usage throughout the city. Keywords-commuter traffic simulation; multi modal transportation network; sustainable city; agent-based modeling