Rail and local public transport are becoming less and less in demand.

The outlook for the future is bleak: The automotive leisure avalanche on Germany's roads continues unabated and almost limitless. The growing leisure mobility of German citizens after work and on weekends is calling all traffic forecasts into question. Two-thirds of day-trippers and short-break vacationers regularly travel by car. And this trend is increasing. The car dominates among day-trippers (1994: 631,000 – 1997: 671,000) and is also unrivaled among short-break vacationers (1994: 591,000 – 1997: 641). This is according to a representative comparative survey conducted by the Leisure Research Institute of British American Tobacco, in which 3,000 German citizens aged 14 and over were interviewed about their mobility behavior in 1994 and 1997.

What was previously considered "pointless driving back and forth" in transport policy is increasingly perceived by motorists as boundless leisure activity. "The two main goals of a climate-friendly transport policy, namely avoiding traffic and shifting it to lower-emission modes of transport, have become a distant prospect," says Prof. Dr. Horst W. Opaschowski, head of the Leisure Research Institute. "Public transport plays almost no role in leisure travel. And the railway is also losing its appeal." Only one in twenty Germans uses public transport (1994: 51,300 – 1997: 41,300) or the railway (1994: 51,300 – 1997: 41,300) for day trips. The same trend is evident for short trips. The railway cannot participate in the trend towards short journeys (1994: 12% – 1997: 9%), while the bus barely holds its own as a means of transport for short journeys (1994: 16% – 1997: 15%).

The traffic-intensive leisure activities of German citizens are not surprising. For years, mobility has increasingly meant leisure travel. For every kilometer traveled to work, there are now two kilometers traveled for leisure trips. And in the future, the majority of growth is expected to come from leisure travel (including holiday travel). "With leisure travel, the element of experience orientation is moving to the forefront in our society, which has always been restless," says Professor Opaschowski. "Time has become so subjectively valuable today that it simply has to be used – to experience as much as possible and miss as little as possible." Leisure mobility is evolving into experience-oriented mobility, a blend of restlessness and a hunger for new experiences.

Restless in their free time: The automotive society

As a consequence of this development, the future is shaping up to be an increasingly car-centric society, one that embraces leisure mobility. This is because the car is not merely an expression of freedom and flexibility; it also possesses an exceptionally high emotional value. For most Germans, driving itself is a leisure activity, while public transportation primarily serves to "transport" people to their leisure time. From the perspective of car drivers, the advantages of public transportation are often perceived only as the car's weaknesses. To date, public transportation has thrived almost exclusively on the car's shortcomings (e.g., traffic jams, environmental problems, and the search for parking).

Because a comprehensive mobility concept for citizens' leisure needs does not yet exist, rural residents in particular (71%) rely on their own cars for day trips (city dwellers: 59%). Families with children also apparently cannot yet afford the "luxury" of train and public transport. For three-quarters of all families with children (75%) and all four-person households (74%), the car is therefore primarily a leisure vehicle, while single-person households are less dependent on a car for their leisure time (46%).

Flexible, convenient, affordable? A leisure-oriented mobility concept is not yet in sight.

A large part of public transport is traditionally geared towards the needs of working people in an industrial society. As a result, many attractive leisure destinations are among the underdeveloped areas served by public transport. They often begin where public transport ends. Opaschowski: "Therefore, a leisure-oriented mobility concept needs to be developed first, one that responds flexibly to spontaneous, especially weather-dependent, mobility habits, such as on-demand buses and shuttle systems, i.e., timetables with short intervals." However, because such attractive alternatives to car-based leisure travel are not yet in sight, most citizens will continue to travel by car – more rather than less – in the coming years.

A detailed analysis of leisure mobility is contained in the fundamental study "Leisure and Mobility: Analysis of a Mass Movement," published in 1995. Interested parties can obtain the 1995 study for a nominal fee of DM 39 from the Leisure Research Institute of British-American Tobacco (Germany) GmbH, Alsterufer 4, 20354 Hamburg, Fax: +49 40 41513231.