“There must be fewer privately owned cars”

According to trend researcher Eike Wenzel, the private car will only play a subordinate role in future mobility. "The car is the only area where it has not been possible to minimize CO2 emissions," said the founder and head of the Institute for Trend and Future Research in Heidelberg of the "Stuttgarter Zeitung" and the "Stuttgarter Nachrichten". "There must be fewer privately owned cars."

The goal must be for an autonomously driving car, i.e. a robotic car, to pick you up at home and take you to a turnstile. From there you would board an ideally autonomous bus and continue your journey. "Such door-to-door solutions are realistic from around 2030 and arouse great interest among citizens."

Wenzel, who also sits on the sustainability council of the state government, called the large-scale installation of charging stations in cities counterproductive. “It cannot be about replacing existing cars one-to-one with battery-powered ones.” This is not possible and not sustainable.

Instead, according to Wenzel, there should be more “collective mobility”. Local transport shouldn’t just be a “stopgap for the car”. Cable cars would also be conceivable, “especially in a car-centric city like Stuttgart. We have to remove mental barriers and create new structures to regain living space for people," said Wenzel.

Moving away from the idea that the car has to be privately owned would also free up a lot of space that is urgently needed: “If autonomous vehicles are part of local public transport, then parking spaces will no longer be needed, and the parking garages can also be torn down. In the inner cities, areas that are currently occupied by cars are becoming free. This will create new living space and inner cities can be transformed for a more sustainable lifestyle”.

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