Car-free living in Garden City Weißenburg, Münster, Germany

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1 Car-free living in Garden City Weißenburg, Münster, Germany ADD HOME long version 1 Overview The competition "living without an own car" of the German federal state of NRW lead to the car-free project Garden City Weißenburg in Münster. The Wohnungsgesellschaft Münsterland mbh (WGM) developed in cooperation with the City of Münster the first car-free colony in North-Rhine-Westphalia. To accompany the idea of sustainable transport solutions mobility measures were implemented and judicial arrangements were reached. 2 Activity description Background and Objectives The colony Gartensiedlung Weißenburg in Münster is the result of a project from the architect office Pries+Pries (GER, Münster), Kossmann+Dahmen (GER, Düsseldorf), KBNK (GER; Hamburg) and of the WGM. At all approximately 200 accommodation units for car-free households shall be built on former military grounds. The flats are of any kind, from 1 room apartments to 5 room flats. On the area which is of 3,2ha size, is also a training centre situated for those who are doing their civilian service by the Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe. The colony is located in the inner city area called Geistviertel which means that it is 2.5 km south of the city centre. Many supply facilities are close-by the area and it is connected to the Old Town by a net of cycle paths. So it is s 10minutes to the city centre. A public transport connection is close-by providing a bus line every 20 minutes. Three bus lines with a frequency of 10 minutes are within walking distance. In 15 minutes the main station is reachable and in 7 minutes the city centre. A car-sharing station is located at the edge of the colony. Implementation The end of the urbanistic competition initiated by the state of North-Rhine- Westphalia was in May Since June 1999 there exists a legally binding land use plan for the project. After that the preparation of land and coverage measures started and the construction of the first 70 accommodation units began in the first construction stage in October Occupancy of the first construction stage was in October The start of construction stage two was in summer 2002 which included again 60 accommodation units. They were finished in June The third construction stage will be realised till The colony is developed completely car-

2 free and this status is bound by legal arrangements and supported by different mobility measures: To have a general overview of the future residents, a before study was undertaken in July The after study in June 2002 took place when one third of the households had moved in and three mobility services were in place. In July 2002 nearly all people (94 %) who have a driver licence were aware of the car-sharing offer and 34 % of those people also used the service of carsharing. Other measures which are implemented so far are: bicycle parking facilities and public transport timetable information in every house. The car-sharing-station provides currently 6 vehicles. Residents of the colony do neither have to pay the admission fee (taken over by WGM) nor the deposit (bonded by WGM). They just have to pay a reduced basic charge. The vehicles can be used by all customers of Stadtteilauto. Target group: Residents of the Garden City Weißenburg Conditions for entry: Tenancy contract with the WGM and use contract with Stadtteilauto Münster Financing: The WGM makes parking spaces available for free, takes over the admission fees and guarantees to pay deposits for using residents. It also financed the electronic safe and makes advertisement. Duration: Since 2001, at first limited for 3 years. Meanwhile the offer was extended. Demand: The efficiency of the station is high, due to the fact that the offer is open for user living in the surrounding area. Regulatory frameworks: To secure the status of car-free living, judicial arrangements were reached by private and public law. Inhabitants are not allowed to own a car. Exceptions are regulated by an arbitration board, whose members are selected from the inhabitants. The board is allowed to accept exceptions for people with handicaps or temporary professional situations. All other inhabitants, that do not have exceptions but nonetheless own or buy a car, loose the right to life in the settlement and their contracts are resigned. The number of necessary parking spaces is limited to 0.2 per accommodation unit, which are only for the car-sharing vehicles and visitors (regulated by public law). A car-sharing-offer was a requirement for the reducing of parking spaces. To reap the benefit of reduced charges users have to present a tenancy contract with the WGM and a use contract with StadtteilAuto. Obstacles: not specified

3 Conclusions: Results and lessons learnt: Nowadays more than half of the settlement is realised: these are all of the rental flats. The demand for these is more than high enough to have all flats rented, so the market response for this kind of living is positive. The part of the settlement dedicated to property housing instead has not been realised due to a very weak response for the offer. The reason for the difficulties within the market section of selling houses is that people would make a final decision with having a house in a settlement not permitting private car ownership. Owning a flat or a house seemed to be a long-time decision to binding, they did not want to exclude the possibility of needing a car in life for such a long time. Renting a flat in contrast can be limited to some years or even months. The current idea of WGM is to extend the part of rental housing instead. Factors of success: Before the residents moved to the Gartensiedlung Weissenburg, they used different media for PT information. After they moved to the car free housing, the use of the 'Fahrplan Münster' (local PT timetable) in particular, which is posted in the foyer of all houses, was now 100 % and also the use of Internet increased. The use of public transport is higher than expected. Most of the work trips of the people living in this housing area are of a short or at least medium distance: 79 % are up to 10 km and 70 % are not longer than 5 km. It seems that the choice of the living area is oriented to the working place, if the option exists. In consequence, building car free housing areas is not necessarily dependent on mobility management. The inhabitants have either chosen Weißenburg especially due to its carabandoning character or due to their individual living conditions making an own car unnecessary or impossible to afford. So also the high level of participation of the inhabitants is working very well. Most of the members of the arbitration board or the tenant club are from the group of inhabitants that have chosen Weißenburg due to its special car-free character. Future prospects and potential for replication: Accordingly, it must be stated that it is rather difficult to convince the decision makers, especially in the housing company, of the idea of mobility management services for their facilities. This should be an item to take much more into account. 3 Indexing Transport & land use: - Car free area - High density area - Land use plan Integration, intermodality, organisation of transport: - Car-sharing - Infrastructure

4 - Regulatory framework - Sustainable modes of transport 4 Additional documents/ links Homepage of the Weißenburgsiedlung Homepage of the Wohnungsgesellschaft Münsterland mbh Collection of eco-friendly settlements Homepage of the German network Car-free housing - Homepage of the car-sharing company Stadtteilauto Münster - Homepage of the European Local Transport Information Service ELTIS 5 Contact person Wohnungsgesellschaft Münsterland mbh Thomas Börtz Phone: +49 (0)2 51 / E.mail: t.boertz@wgm.de Stadtteilauto Münster Robert Ammann Phone: +49 (0)2 51 / E.mail: kontakt@stadtteilauto.com 6 Author Doris Bäumer & Jost Wilker (ILS ggmbh) 7 Data origin - Wohnungsgesellschaft Münsterland mbh (2006): Gartensiedlung Weißenburg. Aktuelle Situationsbeschreibung. - Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Building and Construction of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Hrsg.) (2002): Wohnen ohne eigenes Auto in der Gartensiedlung Weißenburg Wie klappt s eigentlich mit der Mobilität? - Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Building and

5 Construction of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Hrsg.) (2003): Mieterticket & Co. Erfolgsfaktoren siedlungsbezogener Mobilitätsdienstleistungen - Homepage of the German information network housing and mobility - Homepage of the Weißenburgsiedlung - Homepage of the Wohnungsgesellschaft Münsterland mbh - Homepage of the European Information Network Eltis / case study section Last update of information: May 2008 Last saving date: 16/06/ :53:00 The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. It does not represent the opinion of the European Communities. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that maybe made of the information contained therein.