regional strategy south-west-styria - EU-Regionalmanagement ...

Mobility
Mobility is a central issue for young people in the region South-West Styria.
Municipalities face the challenge to create sustainable offers for people despite a decreased flow
of funds and to promote the many positive aspects of rural life as well as to constantly adjust
the offers to young people’s needs. In the course of the future laboratory it became clear that
there is a wide range of leisure facilities offered in the single municipalities. In this area there
will be special need for regional cooperation to reduce costs and share resources. This means
that there is need for mobility opportunities in the evening and on weekends especially for
younger people to be able to observe the offers. Very often, the missing of public transfer is
substituted at home, which means that parents have to become their children’s taxi drivers.
“Everything is scattered and spoilt. There is hardly anything in the near surrounding.”
This shows that there is need for optimized and flexible offers to meet the young people’s
needs, the need for public transport, however, changes with motorization (moped, car) from
leisure facilities towards going out in the evenings. The most important issues for young people
are improved (especially uniform) transport connections, flexible and affordable taxis, more
public transport on weekends and especially in the evenings (concerts, going out, events,
cinema) but also better connections to shopping centers.
“Nobody knows when and where the busses are running and where they are going”.
Most young people start to commute between home and work very early on. With the help of
proper mobility opportunities it could be possible to keep young people who work outside of the
region in their home region. The stronger the attachment to the region the more probable is it
for young people to accept commuting if it is later necessary.
With regard to the expansion of individual spheres of operation, the expansion of public
transport also plays a crucial role. It would be rather important to establish a public transport
system, which covers also peripheral rural regions and enables a consumer-orientated usage in
order to reduce the dependency on costly and environmentally polluting private motorized
transport (which is rather important for young people). Thus, young people could have easier
access to local and regional offers and the exclusion of development- and participation
possibilities could be avoided. (cf. Dax, 2002. p. 177)
Young people living in rural areas have to be mobile. As they are to a great extent dependent
on their parents and public transport, the purchase of a car or a moped happens rather early.
This enhances independence and the social status. With respect to the difference between girls
and boys it is a fact that girls still have less mobility opportunities than boys. The lack of
particularly higher qualified and future-safe education-/ job-/ advanced training opportunities
forces young people to commute and moreover contributes, especially in structurally weaker
regions, to the migration pressure of younger qualified working people (especially young
women)
Prevention and Health
Concerning prevention and health there will be no direct focus in our region. However, we will
attempt to include preventive and mobile offers for young people more strongly in the region as
they are an important support for young people, especially in a crisis situation.
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This project is implemented through the CENTRAL EUROPE Programme co -financed by the ERDF