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During rush hour, most cars only have one person in them. Scientists and start-ups are working on solutions that are intended to reduce CO2 emissions and are more transport-friendly.
One driver per car: This is what it usually looks like in German rush hour traffic. Statistically, just 1.1 people are moved per car on the way to work. A poor rate in terms of climate and transport policy.
Adrian Sutu, who works as a forklift driver at Chempark in Leverkusen, also knows this. For him, the car is the only viable option, even if he sits in traffic jams almost every day. “I have to pick up my children from daycare after work. It would take me two or three hours to get there by bus; there are no train connections where I live,” he says. “The car is the only means of transportation that works for me.”
An app for Carpooling
In Germany, the car is the most popular means of getting from home to work. In 2020, 86 percent of employees drove to work this way. They believe in Bonn that a lot would be gained if at least two or three people drove together. For a year now, Stadtwerke Bonn has been offering an app for carpooling as a supplement to local transport.
Drivers get money for giving someone a ride: ten cents per kilometer driven. It’s free for passengers if they have a Germany ticket, for example. The whole thing is a test run in which several employers are taking part, such as the Jülich Research Center or the Bonn University Hospital. Employees who use the app to get to work pay nothing for the journey – the employers take care of that.
Time savings and additional income
There are sometimes traffic jams on the access roads to the Bonn University Hospital and employee parking spaces are limited, explains Michael Schmitz, head of the clinic’s infrastructure services department. The carpooling app is an attempt to purify traffic and save CO2 emissions. “We already have 360 employees using it, and in one year of testing we made 2,243 trips and saved 46,000 kilometers of driving distance,” says Schmitz.
GoFlux is the name of the app, developed by the start-up of the same name from Cologne. Managing director Wolfram Uerlich is convinced that there is great potential in carpooling. “For the passengers who use our app, the biggest advantage is that they save time getting to work. For the drivers, they earn extra money, on average 100 to 150 euros a month. Many who have started using it stay with it because they see an advantage for themselves.”
In France, carpooling is now subsidized by the state. Uerlich also wants something like that for Germany.
Where do companies locate?
At the Wuppertal Institute, traffic researcher Thorsten Koska is thinking about how commuting could work better in Germany. He also has the transport transition in mind. “A rapid expansion of the rail network is now necessary so that we can shift traffic from cars to public transport. Railway lines must be reactivated and more buses used in rural areas, with better frequency.” Anyone who rides an e-bike to the train stop needs good bike paths and safe parking options.
According to Koska, there would also be a need for government incentives for companies not to locate on greenfield sites, but rather where employees can easily get there without a car. The same applies to residential areas. They should be built where there is good access to local transport. “You can also convince people to switch with financial incentives. For example, with a changed commuter allowance that favors sustainable means of transport,” says Koska.
Surveys show that many people who drive in Germany would generally be willing to use other means of transport – if, for example, the train were more reliable. Forklift driver Sutu from Leverkusen could also imagine leaving the car behind at some point and switching to an e-bike, for example. His employer offers test Pedelecs for this purpose. When his children are older and he no longer has to pick them up from daycare, Sutu says he would like to try it out.