Smart Mobility in Residential Districts: VCD Releases Charter

In mid-November, 50 housing associations, municipalities, mobility service providers, architects and urban planners signed the Smart Mobility in Residential Districts charter, initiated by the ecologically minded traffic club VCD. The charter defines guidelines on how housing and mobility can be planned in tandem in future.

Traffic accounts for around 20 percent of CO2 emissions in Germany – a clear argument in favour of the mobility transition. But not everyone has easy and convenient access to mobility offers that provide an alternative to cars, and these offers are not all easy and convenient for everyone to use. This is where the Smart Mobility in Residential Districts (“Intelligente Mobilität im Wohnquariter”) charter comes in. Released on 18 November 2022 by VCD, a non-profit environmental association and ecologically minded traffic club, it is now being implemented in cooperation with the first 50 signatories, among them housing associations, municipalities, mobility service providers, architects and urban planners.The document aims to anchor climate-friendly mobility in residential districts in future and contains guidelines and proposed measures for planning housing and mobility in tandem. With a clear aim: to ensure no one has to depend on their own car to get from A to B safely.

The first 50 signatories have committed themselves to plan and provide climate-friendly mobility offers in districts in future and include Berlin actors such as the Alliance of Housing Associations in Berlin and Brandenburg (“BBU Verband Berlin Brandenburgische Wohnungsunternehmen”), the Berlin Chamber of Architects (“Architektenkammer Berlin”), housing association HOWOGE and the Senate Department for the Environment, Urban Mobility, Consumer Protection and Climate Action. The mobility transition is a mammoth project that can only succeed if everyone pitches in, something Thomas Mager, member of the VCD federal board, emphasised. “The key to this success lies in our immediate living environment: our residential districts. Only if good alternatives to our own cars are available right outside our door are we free to choose how we want to be mobile – and to select a climate-friendly option.”

With the charter, signatories want to send a clear message to the federal government, namely, to prioritise the matter on its political agenda, as housing and mobility are among the sectors that cause the most environmental pollution. To effectively reduce CO2 emissions, they need to be planned in tandem, which requires the support of the Federation, especially in times of crisis.

The release of the Smart Mobility in Residential Districts charter was initiated by the Nationwide Network for Housing and Mobility (“Bundesweites Netzwerk Wohnen und Mobilität”), a VCD project. Part of a national climate protection initiative funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), the network brings together housing associations, municipalities, planners and mobility service providers to develop smart, ecologically and socially acceptable mobility concepts for residential districts.

The VCD invites other actors to sign the charter (German only)!