LUENEBURG - A STUDY OF A CAR-FREE CITY

This paper discusses the closure to vehicular traffic of the historic town centre of Lueneburg, Germany. Lueneburg is a town of 62,000 inhabitants, 20 miles south of Hamburg, and its local authority agreed to an overall transport strategy in 1991. The strategy closed the town centre to cars, reduced nearby car parking, imposed a 30kph speed limit in residential roads, increased cycle facilities, and promoted public transport. A survey was conducted for the local authority, to obtain the objective views of a large sample of people living in or near Lueneburg, and to assess the effectiveness of the road closure four months after it was implemented. 2225 people were interviewed on-street at five locations in the centre, and 308 at a supermarket in a suburb. Trips to the suburb were mainly by car, but trips to the centre were usually by more environment-friendly modes. Between May and October 1993, the proportion of people travelling by car to the centre on weekdays declined from 35.2% to 26.5%. Each interview asked questions about: (1) journey mode, origin and purpose; (2) attitudes to the town centre; and (3) travel, spending and shopping behaviour. 55% of respondents considered that the town centre had become more attractive. For the covering abstract see IRRD 870107.