Göteborg's urban configuration

Göteborg is situated on the west coast of Sweden and has a population of 490.000 inhabitants which makes it the second largest city in the country. The city covers an area of 450 square kilometres and is the capital of the county Västra Götaland.

Göteborg has a long and successful tradition as an industrial and trading city. A significant proportion of all trade with Sweden is conducted at the Port of Göteborg, the largest in Scandinavia. The city has also an important position according to land based infrastructure. Major highways, such as E6 and E20, passing through the city and by railway Göteborg is connected with the rest of the country as well as Norway and Denmark.

The city structure is relatively widespread and the river Göta Älv divides the city into a northern and a southern half. These aspects, as well as the hilly topography and the climate, affect the accessibility in Göteborg and create important challenges for the planners.

About 20% of residences comprise private houses while the remaining 80% comprises apartment buildings. The city centre has a mix of housing, shops and offices. Most of the cultural activities are also available in the city centre. A few kilometres outside Göteborg, housing is more widespread where access to cultural establishments, shops and offices is much lower except for a number of major shopping centres primarily serving car users. In some peripheral areas, segregation is noticeable and is caused to large extent by the variation in the price of accommodation.

Mobility system and policies

Transport supply and demand

The total number of journeys undertaken in Göteborg is constantly increasing. Thanks to the implementation of a number of traffic control measures both in the city centre and in residential areas, traffic distribution now shows an increase in the use of major roads and highways and a reduction in the use of smaller streets as well as traffic in the city centre.

Göteborg is a spread out city and many areas lack good public transport connections. As a consequence half of all journeys undertaken in Göteborg are car journeys, 25% use public transport, 11% bicycles whilst the remaining 14% are pedestrians. Of the journeys made by bicycle in Göteborg almost 50 % are made between home and work and another 20 % between home and school.

The public transport in Göteborg is based on a tram network and a large number of bus routes. Outside the city, a network of trains and buses is available and a ferry service is provided for residents of the islands in the southern archipelago. Landvetter, Göteborg's main airport, is situated 25 km from the city and is reached by airport buses. Public transport covers a relatively large part of the city but there are nevertheless a large number of residents with poor public transport services.

Public transport utilization is measured and documented at regular intervals. A new ticket system to be introduced shortly will provide even more information about travel habits. The City Council gives great priority to the increased use of public transport and a commensurate reduction in the number of car journeys undertaken

Cycle traffic is also continuously monitored at a number of places but the results are not fully reliable. Measuring methods and their utilization are now being developed in order to improve accuracy and relevance to predetermined targets.

The total length of the cycle network in Göteborg is around 400 kilometres and there are cycle parking for about 3000 bikes around the city.

The Environmental Programme for Traffic in Göteborg states that traffic congestion is a problem for about 2 hours each morning and evening. This affects not only the national highway network but also local city streets, especially in the city centre.

This congestion also causes deterioration in air quality. The worst hold-ups are on the E6 at Tingstads Tunnel. This area has the highest traffic density in Göteborg, with approximately 12 000 vehicles passing through each day.

In the areas worst affected by traffic density, congestion and accidents, the roads 45 Götaleden, E6 Tingstads Tunnel and E20 at Mölndal, the National Road Administration has begun testing variable speed limits. Further measures are being planned for other locations. The Traffic and Public Transport Authority has come to the conclusion that unless something is done with regard to traffic, there will be hold ups for 4 hours each day by 2010.

The tram network is less affected by congestion as it for the most part operates segregated from other traffic and as it also has high priority at traffic lights. Buses also have priority at traffic lights but they are nevertheless affected by traffic build-ups as there is a relatively limited number of separate bus lanes in Göteborg.

The Traffic and Public Transport Authority is responsible for roads and traffic and co-ordinates public transport in the city. This co-ordination takes place in close collaboration with the state-owned Swedish National Road Administration, Banverket (the railway network), Västra Götalands Region, Västtrafik AB (Regional Public Transport Authority) and The Göteborg Region Association of Local Authorities, GR.

Göteborg has a mobility center working with development and investigations about sustainable traffic and transport solutions that will reduce impact on the environment and meet the requirements for accessibility and safety. The mobility center is located in the Lundby district in Göteborg, an inner city shipyard area which has suffered from decline in traditional industries and now is under strong redevelopment into a combined housing, education and business area. The idea is to use Lundby as a test-bed for future full-scale introduction of sustainable transport solutions in Göteborg.

Mobility goals

The City of Göteborg has an environmental policy that clearly states that all environmental work has highest priority and that environmental awareness shall be a self-evident part of the day to day activities of the city. The Traffic and Public Transport Authority and the Environmental Committee are jointly responsible for sustainable travel.

The challenge is the increasingly demand for mobility within a restricted area. In order to meet this demand and strive for sustainability the vision for the Traffic and Public Transport Authority is to ensure effective, safe and sustainable mobility for everybody.

In 2004 the City Council explicitly expressed that one of the few prioritised goals for the city development should be to increase the share of cyclists. With the background of 50% of the travels being less than 5 km, the long-term goal is that all short travels should be made foot, bicycle or public transport.

Two important documents form the basis of the mission for the Traffic and Public Transport Authority; the 'Environmental Programme for Traffic in Göteborg' and 'Programme Active Road Users Support'. In addition to these, other publications dealing with sustainable travel include 'The Cycling Programme', 'The Pedestrian Programme' and 'K2020 - Future Public Transport in Göteborg'.

In the Environmental Programme for Traffic in Göteborg (2006) a comprehensive vision for a sustainable traffic in Göteborg is presented, a vision of a city that is sustainable, green, dense and mixed, attractive for people to live and work in and easy to access. The programme is focusing on the following areas; travel behaviour, goods transports, technology development, protect and economize with natural resources.

In the programme, 'Active Road User Support' (2002) there is an account of how the existing infrastructure can be utilized in a better way by developing relevant services. Three areas of focus are presented for improved resource utilization:

• Reducing the need to travel
• Reducing the number of sole occupant car journeys
• Guidance for road users and regulation of traffic

Within the framework of Active Road User Support, a number of activities have been collected under the heading 'New Travel Habits' (Nya Vägvanor). This in order to promote increased use of public transport and bicycles and to encourage people to walk, resulting in an improved environment and less congestion. Put simply, these activities will influence the attitudes and behaviour of the residents of Göteborg in their daily travel.

The first policy programme for cycling was the Cycling Programme from 1999, a short-term strategic document containing several suggestions on how to increase cycling. The overall aim with the programme was to identify the desirability and the potential to increase cycling in Göteborg. The goals set up were:

• Increase cycling from 8% (1996) to 12% by the year 2012.
• Security should be improved for cyclists meaning total number of injured should be reduced by 25% 2008.

A new long-term cycling strategy, C2020, is now in formation and will draw from the work of the cycling programme from 1999. Involved in forming the strategy are stakeholders with responsibility for urban and traffic planning, investments and design of infrastructure in general and bicycle infrastructure in particular. The key issues to include in the strategy work and to discuss are those that increase the number of cyclists. A pre-study for the C2020 was conducted which identified possible areas of interest and key issues to include such as multi-modal trips, overall planning, investments and detailed planning, maintenance, data collection and analysis, communication, steering procedures and societal and economic effects.

Cycling State of the art

Half of the travels in Göteborg are less than 5 km. Many of these could easily be made by bicycle but the status and image of cycling as a mode of transport need to be improved. In addition Göteborg has since many years a developed cycling infrastructure but it is not being used to a satisfactory extent. The activities within this work package are for Göteborg to improve the already existing infrastructure by providing cycle services for cyclists.

In Göteborg it is difficult to ascertain what proportion of the city's traffic comprises of cyclists or how far they cycle. The average number of cycle trips undertaken each day in Göteborg is 120 000. This represents 8-9% of the total number of people travelling each day, which can be compared to 12% for Sweden as a whole. Approximately 50% of these trips are commutes.

600 cyclists are injured by accidents in Göteborg each year. More than half of all cycling accidents involve the cyclist falling off without any others being involved and more than half of these accidents are caused either by the cyclist or by a defective bicycle. Nine out of ten fatal accidents are caused by collisions with vehicles. The majority of fatalities and serious injuries involve cyclists over 65. One out of three cyclists involved in traffic accidents received head injuries. No cyclist wearing a helmet has ever been reported as having died of head injuries. Almost half of all cycling fatalities could have been avoided if the cyclist had been wearing a helmet. The use of helmets in Göteborg is steadily increasing. About 40% of all cyclists in Göteborg wear a helmet with the national average of 17-18%. The 1st January, 2005, children up to the age of 15 must, by law, wear a helmet, whether they are cycling themselves or are passengers.

The number of injured cyclists has decreased by 25% since the mid-nineties. This improvement is attributed to an increased segregation of vehicles and cyclists and to speed reduction measures, such as speed bumps.

The City Traffic and Public Transport Authority is responsible for a cycle network comprising almost 400 km of bicycle lanes. There are many more in the residential areas and parks but the Parks and Nature Administration are responsible of those.

All cycle routes are checked regularly at varying intervals. Cleaning is made every week or every second week. Sand collection is done by the end of April and snow clearance within 12 hours. Checking of cycle tracks is done every, or every other, month. Repair dangerous potholes is done within 24 (when reported) hours, otherwise within 10 days

Cycles are not allowed on buses or trains but are allowed on ferries. There is no charge on the river ferries but on the ferries serving the southern archipelago, where cycles may be taken on board if there is sufficient space. There are over 3000 cycle parking spaces in Göteborg. Cycles can be parked almost anywhere and at no charge.