• Car drivers want to travel quickly – not save the environment
• 1,000 Austrian citizens surveyed on road traffic behavior

Vienna. April 29, 2020 – Traffic jams on Austrian roads are likely to return quickly after the Corona crisis. 79 percent of Austrian citizens are concerned about the negative environmental impact this might have. Faced with such increased congestion, as many are prepared to use a navigation app to choose their route. Surprisingly then, when selecting a route, environmental considerations are not a priority for the majority of drivers. Instead, almost 73 percent of respondents want a route that guarantees the shortest travel time. These are findings of the "Kapsch TrafficCom Index." 1,000 citizens representative of the population have been surveyed by a market research institute in Austria.

The intelligent use of navigation devices offers opportunities to reduce road congestion and traffic jams. This technology could also help to achieve other desirable goals. For example, traffic planners could also factor in environmental impacts such as CO2 emissions in their route recommendations. The survey findings show that this would require a change in overall thinking, though: At present, the majority of drivers in Austria consider the shortest travel time (73 percent), the most reliable travel time (65 percent) or the shortest distance (61 percent) to be “important” or “very important” when selecting a route. And only 44 percent of the respondents consider routes with the lowest impact on the environment to be “important” or “very important”.

"Smart navigation networks are a key technology for fundamentally reducing traffic jams and pollution on roads," says Gerd Gröbminger, Vice President Sales Kapsch TrafficCom. "The desire of drivers to use navigation tools to minimize travel times should be utilized by public planners. The aim is to offer digital traffic management solutions that take important societal goals into account. Environmental protection is one of these important targets that will improve our everyday life."

For example, traffic light control systems, which automatically adapt to the current traffic situation, have already proven their effectiveness. Such signal control systems have been installed in the Spanish capital Madrid, where they reduced traffic jams by about 20 percent. The volume of traffic jams will be reduced even more significantly if car data is linked to the traffic control network. At the same time, CO2 emissions will fall and the traffic flow can be distributed more evenly over the road network via route recommendations.

“These existing examples suggest that the situation on Austrian roads does not necessarily have to remain at an unsatisfactory level – we can do better,” says Gerd Gröbminger.

About the survey “Kapsch TrafficCom index”.

The Kapsch TrafficCom index was conducted with the support of a professional market research institute. A total of 9,000 representative participants in nine countries were asked their views on their current traffic situation, road congestion and strategies to improve traffic management: USA (N=1,000), Argentina (N=1,000), Chile (N=1,000), UK (N=1,000), Germany (N=1,000), Austria (N=1,000), France (N=1,000), Spain (N=1,000), Australia (N=1,000).

Kapsch TrafficCom is a provider of intelligent transportation systems in the fields of tolling, traffic management, smart urban mobility, traffic safety and security, and connected vehicles. As a one-stop solutions provider, Kapsch TrafficCom offers end-to-end solutions covering the entire value creation chain of its customers, from components and design to the implementation and operation of systems. The mobility solutions supplied by Kapsch TrafficCom help make road traffic safer and more reliable, efficient, and comfortable in urban areas and on highways while helping to reduce pollution.

Kapsch TrafficCom is an internationally renowned provider of intelligent transportation systems thanks to the many projects it has brought to successful fruition in more than 50 countries around the globe. As part of the Kapsch Group, Kapsch TrafficCom with headquarters in Vienna, has subsidiaries and branches in more than 30 countries. It has been listed in the Prime Market of the Vienna Stock Exchange since 2007 (ticker symbol: KTCG). Kapsch TrafficCom‘s about 5,000 employees generated revenues of EUR 738 million in fiscal year 2018/19.