Getting to and from the University

Mobility is another key aspect of sustainable development at the University. Mobility-related emissions account for the second-largest share of total emissions at RWTH Aachen University after energy supply. Academic operations and the international cooperations that they tend to entail generate a corresponding amount of business travel. At the same time, the University has various locations in the city of Aachen and it is therefore both a destination and a starting point for University members. This being so, RWTH has also set itself targets regarding mobility as part of its Sustainability Strategy. In it, we address business trips and commutes as well as the University’s own vehicle fleet.

On Foot, by Bus, and by Bike

How can we make mobility at RWTH more sustainable overall? At least part of the answer to this question is “environmental networking”. Use of public transport, walking and cycling (environmentally-friendly transport) is to be expanded upon at the University by 2030.

The last mobility survey of employees and students at RWTH was conducted by the Chair and Institute of Urban and Transport Planning in 2024. The results show that around a third (32%) of RWTH employees commute to work by bicycle. Public transport is used for 19% of journeys, while 10% come to work on foot. However, the most frequently used means of transport is the car or other motorized vehicle, which accounts for 38% of journeys. Environmentally-friendly transport accounts for a total of 61% of the means of transportation chosen by RWTH employees to get to work. This is roughly the same amount of environmentally-friendly transport that other members of the public living in Aachen use on all their daily journeys (60%, see Mobility in Germany, 2023). If all University members are taken into account—including students—the proportion of journeys to and from RWTH Aachen University made by environmentally-friendly transport rises to 85%.

We can also see this in the results of the penultimate mobility survey: The mobility choices of both employees and students have remained largely unchanged or they have changed only slightly since 2022. It is worth noting that students who travel by public transport increased from 33% to 37% and that the number who cycle reduced from 36% to 32% in 2024. We have observed an increase from 35% to 38% in the number of employees using private motor vehicles. Overall, there is a slight shift in the choice of means of transport from cycling to public transport at RWTH.

The goal of RWTH Aachen University is to ensure that at least 70% of journeys are carried out using environmentally-friendly transport by 2030, where the modal split model based on transport performance is used as a basis. This involves the kilometers traveled being taken into account, alongside data on which means of transport is selected. Simply put, it shows how University members get to RWTH, how they go home and what distances they cover when doing so. According to the last mobility survey from 2024, the share of environmentally-friendly transport is 62%—of which 4% is walking, 14% cycling and 44% is public transport. This means that we need to increase this by at least 8 percentage points before we can achieve the target of 70% in 2030.

Environmentally-Friendly Commuting

RWTH has also set itself a sustainability target for employees’ commutes. By 2030, our aim is for 90% of these journeys to be made using modes of mobility that are part of the environmental network. Business trips refer to changes of location within the municipal boundaries of the place where the workplace is located—for us, this generally means the municipal area of the city of Aachen. The mobility survey conducted by RWTH’s Institute of Urban Planning and Transport (ISB) in 2024 shows that 76% of these journeys are already being made by RWTH employees in a more environmentally friendly way. The proportion is highest among academic employees at 86%, followed by professors (77%) and employees in technology and administration (57%). We are therefore still 14 percentage points short of reaching our target.  

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