Dresden has ambitious climate targets and is known for its citizen participation initiatives. The city has now been inspired by the Wahl-O-Mat, which is otherwise used to gauge public opinion in political elections: the interactive Mobil-O-Mat invites citizens to help shape the mobility of the future.
The Elbe cycle path is one of Dresden's most popular cycling and walking routes. With the Mobil-O-Mat, the city wants to collect further ideas for the mobility of the future. Photo: Sylvio Dittrich
The city of Dresden has developed the Mobil-O-Mat together with urbanista, an office for urban development and urban future strategies. This online participation process was open from February 5 to March 17. Its purpose is to find out which mobility measures the citizens of Dresden consider to be promising for the future. Against the backdrop of the key mobility goals adopted in Dresden in 2022, it is now time to plan their implementation.
Participants were able to slip into the role of a transport planner and put together a set of measures. There was a fictitious budget of 500 euros for this. The measures could relate to walking and cycling as well as bus and rail, car and commercial transport, networked mobility services, electric drives, parking and urban space.
Mobil-O-Mat, Copyright: urbanista
Simulation of the impact of measures on traffic and mobility
The Dresden Mobility Plan 2035+ is a continuation of the Transport Development Plan 2025plus. It is intended to provide a roadmap for the future. The key objectives for mobility in Dresden are as follows:
- Climate-friendly mobility
- Social, healthy and safe travel
- Urban-friendly transport system
- Accessibility and economic stability
As the planning of transport and mobility is complex and has many requirements with regard to a liveable, climate-friendly and safe city, the city of Dresden surveyed its citizens, who are all affected by the topic. This is because there are already numerous ideas and opinions on what the mobility of the future could look like in Dresden. All of these are to be collected and systematically presented in the participation process using the Mobil-O-Mat.
The Mobil-O-Mat is more than just a survey tool. Rather, it makes it possible to simulate the effects of measures on mobility and traffic. Until March 17, participants had the opportunity to create a personal set of around 50 measures. Each of these measures incurs costs, but can also generate a credit if money is collected. The planning in the simulator took this into account and worked as long as the fictitious budget of 500 euros was available.
Dresden Central Station is one of the most important hubs in eastern Germany. Copyright: DMG/Sylvio Dittrich
A picture of the mood on mobility in Dresden
Each of the measures in the Mobil-O-Mat has a specific value that shows how the four goals influence Dresden’s transport and mobility planning. Throughout the simulation, the status of the goals changes from gray to light green to dark green. The better the goals are achieved, the more balanced the planning is.
The objectives in the Mobil-O-Mat reflect the 14 key objectives for mobility developed in the MOBIdialog 2035+ and adopted by the city council. A total of 62 people belong to the discussion forum. These are randomly selected Dresden residents as well as representatives of politics, science, associations, clubs and institutions.
With the Mobil-O-Mat, urbanista and the city of Dresden are pursuing the intention of making these key objectives better known and raising awareness of the city’s mobility strategy. The city administration would also like to obtain a picture of public opinion on mobility in Dresden. The results will be published on www.dresden.de/mobiplan.
Dresden is connected day and night by streetcar and bus lines that travel to almost every corner of the city. Copyright: Sebastian Weingart
Part of the EU city mission
In 2022, the European Commission announced that Dresden would be one of the EU mission’s “100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030“. A working group consisting of SachsenEnergie AG, Stadtentwässerung Dresden GmbH, Stadtreinigung Dresden GmbH and the city administration had drawn up the application. The EU City Mission supports pilot cities in developing and implementing innovative ways to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality that are supported by urban society.
Almost 400 cities from all 27 countries of the European Union applied for the EU City Mission. 100 EU cities and 12 cities from countries associated with Horizon Europe (2021-2027) were awarded the title. They are fully supported by the EU NetZeroCities program, but do not receive any direct financial support.
As part of membership, cities must draw up a Climate City Contract. This urban framework describes what the path to climate neutrality could look like. It is particularly important to involve relevant stakeholders in the municipalities. With the Mobil-O-Mat, Dresden shows how this can be achieved in a playful way.
A key strategy in Dresden is the close integration of the Mobility Plan 35+ with the Smart City Strategy. A positive energy district is also one of the planned innovations. Dresden’s Climate City Contract is to be submitted to the European Commission in September 2024.
Read more: As early as 2021, the city of Dresden invited its citizens to participate in the energy and climate protection concept. The city’s goal is to become climate-neutral before 2050. We discussedwhether this can work here.