ACTIVE2030Plus - Research into urban climate-resilient solutions for cycling and walking

The transport sector is one of the main greenhouse gas emitters. In order to effectively limit the consequences of climate change, a sustainable transport transition is required in which cycling and walking play a central role. At the same time, increasing heatwaves, heavy rainfall events and storms are already impairing the safety, comfort and usability of these active mobility forms in particular.

The research project ACTIVE2030Plus investigates how cycling and walking infrastructure can be designed to be climate-adapted and resilient in order to secure its attractiveness and usability in the long term. The aim is to identify and analyze measures that enable and promote cycling and walking under future altered weather conditions. Both infrastructural adaptations, such as through green and blue infrastructure, as well as transport planning approaches and behavioral and informational measures, for example the provision of shelters, are considered.

Innovative methods are used to implement the research project, including the use of wearables to record individual thermal loads, which are combined with perception and survey data. On this basis, practice-oriented recommendations for the planning and implementation of measures are to be developed that make cycling and walking safe and attractive while contributing to mitigating the consequences of climate change.

The project is carried out in cooperation between the University of Kassel, in particular the Department of Cycling and Sustainable Mobility and the Department of Environmental Meteorology, and the City of Trier as a model municipality. Trier is one of the hottest cities in Germany and has a cycling network that is continuously being expanded, providing favorable conditions for testing and implementing the measures.