Mobilstation

Good Practice

Sustainability

Age-appropriate mobility in a residential quarter.

Zwichau City Council

Germany

Local policy

POLICY OBJECTIVE

Germany’s first age-appropriate mobile station pursues the vision of “Scooters for everyone in the neighborhood”. At the Mobilstation, residents can borrow various electrically powered mobiles such as electric wheelchairs and e-scooters.

This new and small-scale mobility concept can help ensure the participation in social life of those affected. The mobility station pursues the vision “Scooters for everyone in the neighborhood”. In this way, older people too have flexibility and autonomy in managing their daily time and are spared long waiting times for transport services and long journeys on foot.

CONTEXT

What will our city of tomorrow look like? How do we want and need to shape our living space in the coming years? How can we practically implement the energy turnaround, and environmental and climate protection in our neighborhoods? The answers to these decisive questions for the future will also come from the Marienthal district of Zwickau.

The daily walk to the supermarket or visit to the doctor is difficult in Zwickau-Marienthal, especially for older people. A lack of public transportation in the neighborhood means that people often have to rely on outside help, such as nursing or cab rides. The Mobilstation aims to counteract this problem.

POLICY DESCRIPTION

In cooperation with the residents of Marienthal, we tested future-oriented technologies in the field of energy supply, digitalisation, and mobility, and developed practical everyday measures. One of the goals of the concept is to ensure local mobility for all neighbourhood residents, as well as offer targeted group-specific and environmentally-friendly vehicles like escooters, e-bikes, and more. For this reason, Marienthal residents were asked about numerous topics such as traffic, mobility, green spaces, power supply and smart homes. Ensuring that these concepts are practical, affordable, age-appropriate, and sustainable is crucial to implementation.

One of the project building blocks is a modern mobility concept for the neighbourhood that meets residents’ needs. To this end, a mobile station and two “mobile boxes” for the elderly and people with limited mobility were installed in the Marienthal district of Zwickau.

This is the first age-appropriate mobility station in Germany to offer unique sharing services explicitly for the elderly and people with limited mobility.

KEY ASPECTS

The technology installed on and in the Mobilbox, as well as in the loanable e-mobiles, should be robust and reliable. All usage processes should be free of complications.
As the target group is mainly elderly people, high standards for the reliability of the technology are extremely important.
Ideally, older people are involved in developing innovative solutions.
The first mobile box was placed directly next to the mobile station, so that a contact person is always on site and available to solve problems.

RESULTS

Over 500 loans and more than 1,500 hours of use in the first few months of the Mobilstation. These figures speak for themselves and clearly show that the station has been popular among local residents and indicate the success that the mobile station has achieved in these months.

The Mobilstation has officially established itself as an integral part of local mobility in Marienthal. The consequence? The first Mobilbox opened in February 2022, allowing users to make rentals 24 hours a day.

Since the launch, we have been able to recommend the mobile station to other municipalities and find synergies with other neighbourhood actors.

Policy's Website

Pauline Ziegert & Erik Höhne

Project officers at the Construction Department

pauline.ziegert@zwickau.de

Good Practice

Mobilstation

Zwichau City Council

POLICY OBJECTIVE

CONTEXT

POLICY DESCRIPTION

KEY ASPECTS

RESULTS

Policy's Website

Pauline Ziegert & Erik Höhne

Project officers at the Construction Department

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