THE ROLE OF THE POLISH UNIVERSITIES IN SHAPING A NEW MOBILITY CULTURE - ASSUMPTIONS, CONDITIONS, EXPERIENCE. CASE STUDY OF GDANSK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, CRACOW UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND SILESIAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

The article expresses an idea of the privileged role of universities in the process of shaping the new culture for urban mobility. Mobility management of the academic community is adopted in order to indirectly influence a wider group of the population. The aim of the study was to investigate the situation at the Polish universities and the willingness of their authorities to implement integrated tools to manage the transportation choices of the academic community. The article considers the role of the public universities in influencing transport behaviour patterns in Polish cities. The authors' conviction of the privileged role of universities in shaping environment-friendly behaviour patterns in society is due to several reasons: the academic community is a significant group in the general population (nearly 5%), in large Polish cities, the participation of the academic community in the general population is up to 30%, students are a social group with a high willingness to adopt new ideas and make changes in lifestyle, knowledge and values gained in the educational process leaks into the public by people with higher education employed in various professions. The article describes a case study of the Gdansk University of Technology, the Cracow University of Technology and the Silesian University of Technology.