Germany is a car country. Free travel for free citizens is a motto that most people in this country take with the breast milk. Nevertheless, there is a growing awareness that something is wrong in the car country. Although a conservative-anxious government policy defends against speed limits, diesel driving bans and hardware retrofits, but the general perception of climate change as an inescapable global problem can no longer be repressed in view of the equally high level of media coverage - above all because with the summer of drought in 2018 climate change has become perceptible for every Central European.
So how could a change in traffic succeed in continuing a promise of mobility to which millions of people in Europe have become accustomed - even if half of them are stuck in traffic every day? What could a life-affirming mobility look like, with emissions that are significantly reduced and that take equal account of environmental and transport quality?
The factory magazine Mobility devotes itself to the state of development and the possibilities of controlling a forward-looking transport transition - and its positive images. Decarbonization, which is necessary in terms of climate science, is not an impossibility until 2030, when cities use their space for change, since the mobility transition is triggering further essential changes, such as those in industry. In addition, consumers and entrepreneurs themselves have opportunities to make the transition in their favor, have federal, state and local governments ways to turn everyday routines in the direction of eco and companies can not only improve their carbon footprint through Business Mobility Management but also of their employees. The dilemma of the German and the European automotive industry, not tackling the change of technology decisively enough and establishing itself as a service provider for future mobility, and what a corresponding industrial policy might look like, is addressed in two factory articles.