The prices for diesel and gasoline are rising rapidly.

Many commuters groan that this makes their journeys by car more expensive.

But are employees actually switching from cars to public transport and using climate-friendly alternatives to get to work?

There has so far been little evidence of this in statistical surveys either.

Kevin Hanschke

Volunteer.

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The car remains the most important means of transport for commuters in Germany on the way to work.

68 percent of commuters drove to work by car in 2020 and 2021.

Only 13 percent of commuters regularly use public transport.

Only one in ten cycles. That has not changed in the past few months, according to the data from the Federal Statistical Office.

In the “Commuter Survey”, which was published in September and is carried out every four years by the Federal Statistical Office, it becomes clear that, compared to 2016, the percentages of the individual modes of transport have remained almost unchanged.

One reason is that some road users have switched from local public transport to cars in order to avoid the higher risk of infection in buses and trains.

Fewer trips, but further away

The number of commuting movements in Germany is still high and is increasing again. In 2020, more than 19 million Germans commuted to work, according to the Federal Employment Agency. "Despite the rise in petrol and diesel prices, we are not seeing any incremental changes in the choice of transport," says transport scientist Philipp Kosok, who is working on the future of commuting at the Agora Energiewende think tank in Berlin. The number of commuters who drive to work across municipal boundaries was 19.9 million in 2020, more than 30 percent higher than in 2000 with 14.9 million.

Negative effects can also be observed with the commuting distances.

Since 1976, the mean distances in rush hour traffic have almost doubled, from 8 to 16 kilometers.

Due to the possibilities of hybrid work, there is a tendency to commute less frequently, but with an even greater distance.

"Especially the highly mobile commuters who commute between the German metropolitan regions cause a high energy load," says the traffic researcher.

Distances between fifty, a hundred and more kilometers would also increase.

Solutions are therefore needed to reduce emissions and costs.

Carpooling agencies are becoming more popular

One way to deal with the problem of commuting is to use car sharing agencies, says Kosok. On average, there are only 1.075 people in the vehicle on a commute in Germany; greenhouse gas emissions and costs could be reduced by more passengers in the car. Despite rising energy prices, Germany is one of the countries in Europe where car-sharing agencies are least popular, according to Eurostat figures from 2020. Just two percent of Germans use online offers. Estonia is the Europe-wide front runner, there 22 percent use ride-sharing offers. In France it is 12 percent.

Such offers have existed in Germany for decades.

In 2005 the “commuter portal” went online, one of the first car sharing agencies in Germany, founded by Frank Dalock.

He has been seeing a renaissance of the ride-sharing scheme for two to three years.

Many municipalities would ask for regional commuter portals to be set up.

“The interest has increased tremendously,” he says.

Municipalities, federal states and companies acquire the license for a tailored commuter portal.

His customers are the state of Brandenburg, the Rhein-Ruhr transport association and Evonik Industries.

150 cities and districts use the commuter portal today.

He can feel the increasing number of users, but cannot say whether this has anything to do with fuel prices.

The portal is particularly successful when transport associations integrate it into their system.