„Fear of missing out ...“
What motivates Germans to be mobile on a massive scale in their leisure time

It is neither the urge to go green or blue nor the desire for a change of location or scenery that motivates Germans most to travel en masse at weekends and on holiday. Rather, it is the "fear of missing out". A good quarter of Germans (28%) fear that they will miss out on life if they don't get moving regularly in their free time - by car, train or bike. And one in five Germans feels that the ceiling is falling on their heads (21%). The idea of escaping - away from everyday television and the daily grind (23%) - becomes the driving force. The where is almost irrelevant, the main thing is to get away from home. This is the result of a comprehensive representative study conducted by the BAT Leisure Research Institute, in which 2,600 German citizens (including 1,646 car drivers) were asked about the motives and backgrounds of the constantly growing leisure mobility.
For every kilometre travelled to work by car, two kilometres are now travelled for leisure. There are many reasons for the growing leisure mobility in Germany. This mass movement cannot be explained by a longing for nature alone. Only just under one in five Germans (18%) travel to be in the countryside. More important, however, are the need for variety, the desire for change (26%), the need for activity, the desire for adventure (24%) and curiosity, the longing for something new (22%). "No matter how cosy the house and flat, no matter how liveable the living environment and no matter how attractive the city," says Prof. Dr Horst W. Opaschowski, Director of the B-A-T Institute, "the need to get out and about and the hunger for experience are much stronger." Leisure, prosperity and mass motorisation combined with the promise of a diverse experience industry mean that people can no longer find peace and quiet. Restlessness is the result.
More than men, women want to escape everyday life through mobility. They also have a strong desire for fresh air (24% - men: 18%). Men, on the other hand, are more likely to seek space with a touch of freedom (21% - women: 14%). The urge to move is also much more pronounced among men (26% - women: 16%).

Car guarantees round-the-clock mobility

Two thirds of the adult population regularly sit behind the wheel of a car (64%) - men significantly more (77%) than women (51%). And 42 per cent of Germans describe themselves as leisure drivers, who are mainly behind the wheel in their free time. Only one in five Germans (21%) state that they use their car more for business.
Rail and local public transport play almost no role in the leisure mobility of Germans. Both modes of transport are so unattractive for leisure activities that they are not even taken seriously as an alternative to the car by day trippers, for example. According to the B-A-T representative survey, just under two thirds of the population (63%) used the car as a means of transport on their last day trip. One in ten took a bus and eight per cent travelled by bike. Only five per cent each used the train and local public transport.
People who travel by car in their leisure time do not just do so out of thoughtlessness or for pure pleasure. How else could it be explained that families with children are twice as well represented among car drivers (76%) as 1-person households (38%). For financial and organisational reasons, multi-person households have so far been largely dependent on the car.
The result is similar for short trips lasting two to four days. Alongside day trips, they represent a significant part of leisure mobility. Three out of five short travellers (59%) travelled by car on their last trip. Rural dwellers (61%) made more use of the car than city dwellers (52%). However, unlike day trippers, buses and trains are a realistic alternative to the car for short trips. One in seven Germans (16%) chose the bus as their mode of transport on their last short trip - both rural residents and city dwellers. The train is also very popular with city dwellers in particular (18% - rural dwellers: 8%). The central location and easy accessibility of train stations obviously encourages people to switch from car to train occasionally, even in their free time or on short holidays.
Public transport: slow, uncomfortable and not very convenient
Public transport has almost no chance against the attractive competition of the car. And they certainly don't have a leisure image. Two out of five Germans (39%) cite "simply too inconvenient" as the main reason why car drivers rarely or never use public transport in their free time. Every third German also finds travelling by train or bus too slow (34%). And a good quarter of respondents complained about a lack of comfort when travelling (27%). Professor Opaschowski: "On the S-Bahn with a surfboard? On the bus with a snowboard? And changing trains with diving equipment? The private leisure train has left the station without public transport." For West Germans in particular, everything moves far too slowly (38% - East: 19%). Working people are annoyed by the overcrowding and don't want to be rushed in their free time (27% - non-working people: 19%). And remarkably, more young people (17%) than pensioners (10%) are upset about dirt, graffiti and unkempt trains.

Accessibility of leisure destinations: The 60-minute distance

The duration of a car journey is the result of a very individual weighing up of interests, in which the time required must be in the right proportion to the experience value of the leisure destination. For a visit to the cinema or a pub, Germans are quite prepared to spend half an hour in the car. However, friends and relatives are the biggest attraction for car-based leisure activities. To meet them and spend time with them, Germans are prepared to travel an average of 1.6 hours by car to reach their destination. This is followed by the five most attractive leisure destinations for Germans: Amusement park (average accepted journey time to reach the destination: 1.4 hours), open-air concert (1.2 hours), musical, local recreation area and zoo, animal park (1.1 hours each).
The following applies to the leisure mobility of German citizens: a leisure destination must generally be reachable within 60 minutes. For the vast majority of the population, this is a subjectively reasonable travelling time by car. Visits to folk festivals and casinos as well as museums and theatres should be possible in a maximum of one hour.
The feeling of freedom. What's most fun about driving a car
Comfort, speed and safety are all well and good when driving a car - but the feeling of simply driving through the countryside, the driving itself, is much nicer. Getting out into the countryside is like an outlet for switching off and refuelling. When asked what is particularly enjoyable about driving, one in three Germans (34%) cites the sheer pleasure of driving without a destination or purpose, the proverbial drive into the countryside.
Being able to move around without a destination, purpose or time pressure is obviously mobility in its most beautiful form - an extraordinary feeling of freedom. This also explains why the feeling of freedom is rated just as highly (33%). Both the feeling of freedom and the pleasure of driving are symptoms of what freedom actually means in the population's ideal conception: being able to do whatever is fun and enjoyable.
The pleasure of motoring can be further enhanced by good music (13%), sociable passengers (12%) and a beautiful landscape (13%). All the senses are involved. Seen in this light, driving can also become a risk factor if sensory impressions, speed intoxication or the experience of risk threaten to impair concentration and attention when driving. This is particularly true for young drivers. Compared to the rest of the population, 18 to 34-year-olds place significantly more value on higher speed (+6 percentage points) in conjunction with good music (+7). Added to this is the personal ambition to be faster than the others and the particular pleasure of being able to let off steam while driving on winding roads (+ 4 in each case).

Between driving pleasure and a guilty conscience
Little acceptance for transport policy measures

The psychological significance of the car as a leisure vehicle must be seen as the greatest obstacle to the acceptance of transport and environmental policy measures. In the new B-A-T study, a representative sample of 1,646 car drivers were confronted with the problem of traffic jams, congested roads and the threat of gridlock in the future. It became clear that the transport policy measures being discussed in public are not (yet) acceptable to the majority of motorists. Three quarters of motorists (75%) generally reject car-free city centres. And only two out of five drivers (43%) are at best comfortable with the idea of creating car-free city centres only at certain times.
The transport policy efforts in the 1970s and 1980s to create a car-friendly city have obviously left their mark. Car drivers want to hold on to their customary rights. The proposal to reserve half of the city's traffic routes for cyclists and pedestrians is not open to discussion for the vast majority. Only 16 per cent of motorists are in favour of such a regulation. Drivers harshly reject restrictions of a permanent nature: 95 percent reject motorway tolls and drastically increased petrol prices. 97 percent do not think much of daily or weekly driving bans. They react in the same way to supposed disadvantages or discrimination: Only three per cent of motorists surveyed vote in favour of a luxury tax for car drivers to finance local public transport at zero fare, but 97 per cent are against it.
More positive signals for the future are coming from the younger generation. One in three drivers under the age of 35 (33%) is already in favour of a car-free city centre in general. The proportion of young people in favour of such a transport policy measure is therefore twice as high as among drivers over 55 (15%). There may therefore be a change in attitudes on this issue in the future. However, it will take time for such a change in values to gain consensus and majority support.