Transforming Urban Space through Parking Reform and PT Incentives

We would like to joint a consortium under the DUT Call 2025 focusing on the transformation of parking and public space in the context of the 15-Minute City.

Our research team builds on a solid scientific foundation and close cooperation with reliable public partners, e.g. the City of Lucerne and the Canton of Zurich. Together, we aim to understand how changes in parking regulation and public transport pricing can accelerate a shift toward more sustainable urban mobility and more liveable streets.

We could build our research on three excellent, real-world opportunities:

(1) The Zurich Mobility Vote (September 2025), in which the electorate approved a dual strategy to promote public transport and make private car storage more expensive. The annual PT pass for Zone 110 will be reduced from CHF 809 to CHF 365, while parking fees in the Blue Zone will become weight-based, making parking up to three times more expensive for heavier vehicles.

(2) The Lucerne City Experiment (Winkelriedstrasse), a real-world laboratory (April 2025 – March 2026) that reconfigures a highly congested inner-city street by repurposing around 40 of 52 parking spaces into goods-handling zones, craft-worker parking, bike and cargo-bike areas, and mobile green elements. The experiment is scientifically monitored by HSLU through surveys and behavioural observation.

(3) A longitudinal study on low-traffic and car-free settlements in Switzerland, where we can extend existing research through additional interviews to analyse effects on vehicle ownership and mode choice.

We are looking for partners with complementary expertise in urban mobility, parking management, behavioural analysis, GIS or transport modelling, and Smart City data tools. Our combined academic and policy background, together with access to these unique real-world laboratories, provides an excellent foundation for a high-impact European project.

As a Swiss institution, we cannot take the lead in the consortium.