Baden-Württemberg supports municipalities in hiring new employees for sustainable mobility

The Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg in Germany is supporting employing additional staff in local authorities to further promote the transition to sustainable mobility. Specifically, funding is granted for cycling coordinators, initial advisors for electromobility, charging infrastructure managers or coordinators for mobility stations and data management, car sharing and parking.

With 1101 municipalities and about 11 million inhabitants, Baden-Württemberg is the third largest federal state in Germany in terms of population. The proclaimed goal in terms of climate protection of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Transport is to strive for a transition to much more sustainable transport by 2030. The main aims are:

• To double the use of public transport by 2030;
• For one-third of all cars to be climate-neutral;
• For car traffic in cities to be reduced by one-third; 
• For every second trip to be made on foot or by bicycle; and 
• For every third ton of freight goods to be transported in a climate-neutral manner.

Combined forces of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and local authorities are required in order to achieve these very ambitious goals.

At the same time, the municipalities can benefit from attractive state and federal funding programs. The combination of State and Federal budget funds provide funding opportunities with a funding rate of up to 90% (this funding rate applies to cycling promotions). Therefore, the goal is to increase the number of employees at the local level, and to establish nationwide measures for sustainable mobility and climate protection in traffic.

Therefore, the funding program aims to support the local authorities with additional staff in key positions for sustainable mobility. Counties and independent cities, as well as administrative communities with their own lower transport authority, have been able to apply for funding since summer 2020. Since then, a total of 71 new positions have been funded and new colleagues hired.

The Climate Protection and Energy Agency Baden-Württemberg (Klimaschutz- und Energieagentur Baden-Württemberg/ KEA-BW) and the Agency für Local Transport Baden-Württemberg (Nahverkehrsgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg/ NVBW) coordinate the newly funded positions and provide them with thematic advice. Regular network meetings are set up, focusing on the transfer of information and knowledge among employees. Advice on funding programs and development are provided.

At the same time, the Ministry of Transport has installed two more funding programs in the field of sustainable mobility. The funding of qualified technical concepts enables municipalities to apply for funding for technical concepts in the field of sustainable mobility, thereby increasing the number of qualified technical concepts in Ba-den-Württemberg and thus the funding from the State Municipal Transport Financing Act (Landesgemeindeverkehrsfinanzierungsgesetz (LGFVG)). Those eligible to apply are rural and urban districts as well as municipalities and associations of municipalities. Funding is available for a full range of technical concepts, from pedestrian transportation to Climate Mobility Plans. Both individual concepts and the combination and qualification of already existing concepts are eligible for funding. This funding program started at the end of October 2020 and has generated huge interest in the municipalities.

To establish an integrated planning approach based on the concept of the European SUMP (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan) Guidelines, the Ministry of Transport intends to provide Climate Mobility Plans as a tool to develop data-based meaningful strategies and effective climate protection measures at the local level. The respective local and regional situation is taken into account. The development of Climate Mobility Plans enables municipalities to apply for the climate bonus under the LGVFG and thus implement the measures with an increased funding rate, a so called climate bonus. This rewards ambitious approaches and climate-friendly mobility development by municipalities. This measure addresses specifically counties and independent cities as well as their surrounding communities.