Panel Discussion on Infrastructures, Mobility and Transport in the EUSALP
Taking advantage of the Austrian EU Council (second semester of 2018), the Tyrolean EUSALP (2018) and Alpine Convention (2017-2018) presidencies, a cross-disciplinary conference aiming at fostering the academic debate about key aspects, opportunities and challenges of transregional cooperation within the EUSALP macro regional strategy was organized by the University of Innsbruck on 4 April 2018 in Innsbruck.
Macro regional aspects of governance, infrastructure, mobility and traffic as well as the economic development and environmental challenges within the Alpine Region were discussed by scientific experts and professors from different universities together with the audience.
The second panel on infrastructure, mobility and traffic in the EUSALP was of particular interest for the EUSALP AG4. High level experts like Prof. Dr. Markus Mailer (University of Innsbruck), Prof. Dr. Kay Axhausen (ETH Zürich) and Prof. Dr. Konrad Bergmeister (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna / chairman of the BBT SE) discussed together with DI Ewald Moser (Leader of the EUSALP AG4) current mobility topics relevant for the Alpine Region.
Prof. Meiler presented the results from the Euregio-Lab 2017, a think-thank of mobility and transport experts reflecting on sustainable mobility and future traffic concepts in the European Region Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino. Whereas Prof. Axhausen put the focus on automated vehicles and in particular on how these services could be financed as part of a public transport system reaching rural areas. Furthermore he pointed out that in future mobility intelligent demand management and the application of road taxes to control individual transport in cities would become more relevant. Finally Prof. Bergmeister spoke about the development of transport infrastructure in the Alpine Region and the importance to invest in infrastructure projects supporting the rail transport and thus strengthening the modal shift from road to rail. As chairman of the Brenner Basistunnel SE he informed about the current construction processes of the BBT connecting Austria and Italy by 2027. In the panel conclusion DI Moser underlined the importance of the just presented topics for the future development of the Alpine Region and informed about the AG4 activities to support modal shift and the challenges in developing a methodology that jointly supports individual (infrastructure) projects at EUSALP level.
The conference was organized as introduction to this years “Future Day” hosted by the Governor of Tyrol and taking place on 5 April 2018 under the motto the EUSALP Presidency Tyrol 2018: “EUSALP | shaping.future.together. In the interest of the alps!”. Besides high-level political speeches by regional and European politicians, an exhibition presenting current projects and activities of EUSALP Action Groups was organized. In this frame the AG4 presented the interactive transport and mobility conflict map to raise awareness for the importance and complexity of the topic mobility and transport in the Alpine Region. The conflict map identifies conflicts related to environmental pressures, infrastructure use and development, and social aspects and tourism.
University of Innsbruck
