A Spotlight on Mobility and Interconnection in Rural vs. Urban Areas

Compact settlement structures, an economically operated public transport system and a sufficient provision with basic supply are often considered as a major goal in regional planning leading to a sustainable settlement development. On the other hand living in single-family houses, lower costs of building land and the general wish of living in the green countryside are some driving forces for people to move to the outskirts of bigger cities, or to rural areas. These facts counteract the above mentioned goals in regional planning and also lead to high expenses for households concerning living and mobility in the long-term (this includes monetary costs as well as time expenses, travel distances, and CO2 emissions) and high infrastructure costs. In this article, based on results of the Alpine Space project MORECO (Mobility and Residential Costs), the authors present a thorough GIS-based regional analysis of a research area in Salzburg, tackling the topics of demographic and settlement development, mobility, and travel behaviour. In order to point out long-term effects and follow-up costs at individual residential locations, an approach of a settlement cost calculator for mobility and accessibility calculations in the Salzburg pilot region is also presented in this paper.