AMIGO - Active Commuter mobilityIn the three-year Interreg project “AMIGO” (Integrating Active Personal Mobility into Organizations’ Health Programs), measures for active commuter mobility are being developed, tested in the form of experiments in the participating pilot companies and analyzed afterwards.https://www.energieinstitut.at/eiv-en/amigo-aktive-pendlermobilitaethttps://www.energieinstitut.at/eiv-en/amigo-aktive-pendlermobilitaet/@@images/image-1200-0d86820eb7b104ce375e481bc0be29c7.jpeg
AMIGO - Active Commuter mobility
In the three-year Interreg project “AMIGO” (Integrating Active Personal Mobility into Organizations’ Health Programs), measures for active commuter mobility are being developed, tested in the form of experiments in the participating pilot companies and analyzed afterwards.
Bernd Hofmeister
VCÖ Mobility Award Vorarlberg 2023 goes to the Vorarlberg Energy Institute for AMIGO<br />
From left to right: Provincial Councillor Daniel Zadra, Susanne Backmeister (Vorarlberg Energy Institute), Marlene Brettenhofer (aks Gesundheit GmbH), Lina Mosshammer (VCÖ - Mobility with a Future), Erwin Nagele (ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG)
Targets
Shifting commuting to climate-friendly mobility
Improving the health of employees and the overall population
Improved institutional cooperation in the project area
Traffic infrastructure relief
Improved quality of life through reduced air and noise emissions
Region and companies become more attractive for skilled workers
Project partners
aks Gesundheit GmbH, Österreich
Canton St.Gallen, Switzerland (Office for Spatial Development and Geoinformation,Energy Agency St. Gallen)
Principality of Liechtenstein(Office for Construction and Infrastructure)
Health Insurance Fund Bodensee-Oberschwaben (D)as associated partner
Project details
Project period: 01.06.2019 – 31.12.2022
Total budget: EUR 493.080
Funding framework: EUR 97.316
Motivation
Challenge: Healthy commute
Occupational health management programs are part of the standard offering in many companies. In addition to company preventive care, this also includes sports offerings such as an in-house gym, etc. Existing health programs hardly take into account the promotion of active mobility on the way to work. At the same time, road connections in the Alpenrhein-Bodensee-Hochrhein region reach their capacity limits at peak commuting times. On the one hand, this impairs accessibility in passenger and freight traffic. On the other hand, it also worsens the quality of life due to traffic noise and pollutant emissions. Analyses show that around 70% of employees live no more than 15 kilometers from their workplace. Yet only 10% of commuters walk or ride a bicycle/e-bike.
Project flow
Motivating people to switch through experiments
Together with committed pilot companies, experiments are being developed and their effectiveness tested in practice. In this way, it may be possible to motivate commuters to switch to walking, cycling, buses and trains, and carpooling for fitness reasons. The Advisory Board, which consists of experts in health research, mobility management and behavioral economics, provides scientific support. With the support of the project partners and the Advisory Board, nine pilot companies are developing solutions for linking mobility and health management. In addition, the project partners are analyzing the areas of workplace mobility management (BMM) and workplace health promotion (WHP) on an institutional level and are making political and systemic recommendations for improvement.
Project outcome
Amigo successfully takes stock
At the start of the project at the beginning of 2020 and at the end of the project in 2022, over 1,500 employees in the pilot companies were surveyed about their mobility behavior. The result of the before/after survey:
The proportion of car journeys to work was reduced from 54% to 49%. In some companies, such as the Hohenems regional hospital, the modal split even fell to 35 percent.
During the Amigo project, 40 percent of respondents were persuaded to increase their use of bicycles, public transport or carpooling.
56 percent (871 people) of the employees surveyed were motivated to try out alternative forms of mobility during the project period.
Picking up employees where they are was crucial to the success of the measures. Anyone who has never thought about making the switch needs information and guidance first and foremost. This was provided in the project by the mobility maps, for example. Anyone who already intends to make the switch, but is still struggling with their inner pig dog, needs motivation and little "nudges". This is where AMIGO offers such as the beWEGt program, Jobrad and Jobticket or incentive systems such as Ecopoints come in.
