Programme

Day 1: Thursday, 18. March 2021

Greeting

Panel

Andreas Bovenschulte, Katrin Dziekan, Mirko Schulte

Today we will be officially starting the first ÖffiCON*! After welcoming and introducing Einfach Einsteigen to you, we will give you a first impression of our speakers and the main topics of this conference.

Public Transport & Sustainable mobility transition for everyone

Keynote EN

Mark Wege

In this keynote, Mark Wege, founder and one of the speakers of Einfach Einsteigen, the organisation behind this event, will tell the story of Einfach Einsteigen, how it is intertwined with the idea ÖffiCON, the Free Hanseatic city of Bremen we live in and their ideas on how to make a successful sustainable mobility transition that works for everyone.

Opening Panel: The future of public transport & sustainable mobility after COVID-19 (EN)

Panel

Katrin Dziekan, François Bausch, Phil Washington

The first evening starts with guests from all around the local traffic community and transport policy, such as Phil Washington or Katrin Dziekan. In a cozy environment we want to find out, how we can advance the transport transformation and public transport. The focus of the discussion will be on the impact of Covid-19 on public transport.

Day 2: Friday, 19. March 2021

Traffic turnaround and the civil society

Rooms

Lisa Tschink & Wolfgang Köhler-Naumann

Different point of views and differing daily lives lead people to thinking "transport transformation". This results in a growing number of us wanting to engage in political spaces. The aim is to find a "better" handling of our private and social needs of mobility. Where do we start? How can we achieve changes?

Labour, climate and unions – How do we develop common solutions?

Rooms

Mira & Cedric

Last year, FridaysForFuture started their first campaign with ver.di (german union) regarding the collective bargaining in public transport. Now the next step has been announced. An alliance of Unteilbar, ver.di and FFF for a social-ecological crisis-policy. We want to look at this development and discuss how employees and the climate movement can work together in the future to actively take part in the transformation of our fossil society.

Digital tools for traffic transformation

Rooms

The digitalization will not save the world, but digital tools can help to do it. But what programmes, websites and other tools are there? To find out, we want to meet in a virtual room, share experiences and gather certain tools, so we can go home with a full toolbox.

Feminism & traffic turnaround

Rooms

Our current traffic system is mainly focussed on cars, which leads to the exclusion of different people or groups of people or even their discrimination. Feminist approaches question these prevailing structures and search for solutions to enable a more inclusive system. Despite what you might expect when hearing "feminism", we will not only, but mostly, focus on women*. Similar topics and intersectionality will be part of the discussion. How feminism can contribute to a traffic transformation and what this process can look like, will be discussed in this networking-room.

Tools for the traffic turnaround (EN)

Roundtable

Besides developing the traffic network, we also need technical tools for a traffic transformation. Which tools (for example apps) are useful and how we can make them more accessible, will be part of the discussion.

Which tariff offers support climate protection?

Workshop EN

Jochen Sauer

Using 4 future scenarios we will show different tariffs and their impact on the demand and financing of public transport. In smaller groups we will then discuss the climate impacts of every scenario and present them to the other groups in the end. The workshop wants to improve one's knowledge of the climate impact different tariffs produce.

Future prospects public transport 2048

Workshop EN

We will take you on a journey to 2048. On the basis of the book "Future for all - a vision for 2048", we will discuss how future mobility can look like, considering other societal factors such as living, work and nutrition.

Ride solutions in public transport – practical examples

Lecture

Frank Gerhardt, Wolfram Uerlich, Barbara Koch, Sven Domroes

Joining others on their ride is not only good for the environment but could also help fulfill the needs for mobility in rural areas. This form of transport is still not living up to its full potential. "Mitfahren i.G." are showing us solutions on how to establish and promote hitching a ride.

Leaser-tickets as a contribution to a traffic turnover? Evaluation results of the SennestadtTicket in Bielefeld

Lecture

Janina Welsch, Michael Herwegen

In a part of the city Bielefeld, Sennestadt, a so called leaser-ticket has been introduced. This ticket allowed the free use of busses in Sennestadt and fewer costs of public transport in the rest of the city. The result: more people used busses and being on climate friendly vehicle made social participation easier.

Gender & diversity (EN)

Roundtable

At this roundtable we will talk about how public transport is not excluded from gender mainstreaming and how this affects different people using it. Besides gender, we will be discussing how secure and accessible public transport is while looking at different viewpoints on the topic. What problems emerge from Gender Mainstreaming in the area of public transport, and how can we make a change?

Parking management (EN)

Lecture

Dr. Paul Barter

Traffic planning is using parking management to manage the amount of space cars are taking up in cities. This way, cities can earn money to reinvest in other forms of transport as well. In this event we will look at the implementation of parking management and its effects for public transport.

Tariff models & experiments

Roundtable

Jochen Sauer, Philip Bedall, Stefan Weigele

Traffic turnaround and the request for more public transport demands a new financial structure. We have invited different speakers to talk about the new and existing tariff models and their (dis-)advantages.

Introducing Einfach Einsteigen

Lecture

Wolfgang Geißler

Einfach Einsteigen has been working towards a traffic turnaround for three years in Bremen and Germany. The initiative is using an approach that develops concepts from professional findings, which meet approval from society and are being accelerated through campaign work. How Einfach Einsteigen works will be shown by Wolfgang Geißler by taking a look at the concept for Bremen.

Lifts as an addition to public transport – a win-win situation for people, mobility and climate?

Roundtable

Marion Jungbluth, Bastian Kettner, Roman Suthold, Wolfram Uerlich, Calvin Deppisch

Lifts can help reduce the public transport overload, which helps the profitableness of public traffic networks and expands the local mobility options. Carpools like this are environmental-friendly, but how can they be a part of public transport, and what are the difficulties? We invite you to join our discussion with different political, economical and scientific perspectives.

Sense of security in public transport

Roundtable

Diana Silvestru

At this roundtable Diana Silvestru and Collectivo Punt 6 will be joining us. Collectivo Punt 6 from Barcelona are talking about a study about the daily life of female night shift workers and how they experience their way home. It is also about barriers, fears and insecurities on their way in the dark. Diana Silvestru dealt with the subjective sense of security in public transport in her master's thesis "Safe en route through Vienna!".

Route reactivation

Roundtable

Bente Grimm, Wolfgang Konukiewitz, Bettina Fabich

Over the last decades a lot of the routes of the railway network have been abandoned. Today, we have more and more demands for route reactivation. Most of the old routes could be reactivated, which would be a big step towards the traffic turnaround. How this can be implemented will be part of this discussion.

Reimagining passenger transport for reduced congestion and better accessibility (EN)

Workshop EN

Paul Minett, John Niles

This workshop describes a Mineta Transportation Institute project that developed a comprehensive, step-by-step methodology to determine the likely uptake and calculate the benefits (economic, social, and environmental) and costs of paying for drivers to become passengers at a congestion-clearing level and to maintain this level over time. The workshop will give participants the opportunity to work through the same process and envision the potential for such a solution in their own jurisdiction.

Need-oriented transport

Lecture

Christian Hinkelmann

The public transport in Germany is not managed from a users perspective and often fails their needs. How can transportation companies and associations be better problem solvers for their customers? How can we win back a user-focussed way of managing public transport? A search for answers.

Financing options for public transport

Panel

The Covid-19 pandemic emphasizes the fragility of an only ticket-based way of financing public transport. Several cities in Europe are already offering free or ticket-free use of local transport. What can we learn from these concepts?

Fewer cars, more life: The art of the transforming cities into sustainable, vital urban spaces (EN)

Panel

, Elizabeth Deakin, Filip Watteeuw, Anabel Gulías Torreiro

Our cities are congested with cars. They degrade our air quality, are a great factor in noise nuisance and take up a lot of space. With this in mind, we want to take up on the question of how to improve air quality in cities and how we can decrease land consumption of cars. How can public transport play a role?

Concert NIA

Cultural event

Antonia Wohlgemuth

From punk rock to fusion, blues, pop, folk and even jazz: she has been inspired in many ways and incorporates this in her songs, which deal with interpersonal and social incidents and emotions.

Day 3: Saturday, 20. March 2021

Labour, climate and unions – How do we develop common solutions?

Rooms

Last year, FridaysForFuture started their first campaign with ver.di (german union) regarding the collective bargaining in public transport. Now the next step has been announced. An alliance of Unteilbar, ver.di and FFF for a social-ecological crisis-policy. We want to look at this development and discuss how employees and the climate movement can work together in the future to actively take part in the transformation of our fossil society.

Digital tools for traffic transformation

Rooms

The digitalization will not save the world, but digital tools can help to do it. But what programmes, websites and other tools are there? To find out, we want to meet in a virtual room, share experiences and gather certain tools, so we can go home with a full toolbox.

Keynote 2

Keynote EN

Alexandra Millonig

Traffic turnaround and the civil society

Rooms

Lisa Tschink & Wolfgang Köhler-Naumann

Different point of views and differing daily lives lead people to thinking "transport transformation". This results in a growing number of us wanting to engage in political spaces. The aim is to find a "better" handling of our private and social needs of mobility. Where do we start? How can we achieve changes?

Feminism & traffic turnaround

Rooms

Rebecca Peters

Our current traffic system is mainly focussed on cars, which leads to the exclusion of different people or groups of people or even their discrimination. Feminist approaches question these prevailing structures and search for solutions to enable a more inclusive system. Despite what you might expect when hearing "feminism", we will not only, but mostly, focus on women*. Similar topics and intersectionality will be part of the discussion. How feminism can contribute to a traffic transformation and what this process can look like, will be discussed in this networking-room.

Public transport in rural areas

Roundtable

Prof. Dr. Jana Kühl, Fabian Lohmann, Stefan Reinhardt, Bernd-Uwe Kleist

The extension of local traffic is always talked about in an urban context, but we also need to focus on rural areas. In these areas, public transportation faces different barriers compared to cities. We want to find out, what barriers there are and what steps we have to take accordingly.

Beneficial financing for the public transport infrastructure in cities

Lecture

Oliver Mietzsch

Here, we illustrate a beneficial financing concept for cities’ railbound public transport systems. The implicated participation of this concept aims to cover the expenses for developing and extending the street infrastructure or rather municipal supply and disposal infrastructure (BauGB, laws of municipal taxes of the federal states). A significant difference to usual means of collecting taxes for this purpose is, regarding the current financing situation, that in terms of public transportation, there is no common use of it like in street infrastucture and that people are not forced to use (i.e. through follow-up fees).

Inclusive traffic turnaround

Lecture

Janna Aljets

Mobility for everyone, what does that even mean? How do mobility-needs differ, and what makes the current traffic system unfair? What would our traffic system look like, if everyone was included? Why do we need feminism for more mobility, and how does the public transport take part in this? I will look at these questions by starting with a short presentation and discussing with you afterwards. We will develop ideas and strategies for a more inclusive traffic turnaround.

Composing a city navigation in 30 minutes

Workshop EN

Frank Gerhardt, Holger Bruch

The city of Herrenberg used the travel information system Stadtnavi for their project Clean Air. At this workshop, the developers show us, how every town can establish a Stadtnavi system within 60 minutes.

Homebound telephone

Lecture

Cornelia Vogt

Concepts like the Homebound-telephone (also known as a "night-line") are common in Germany. It is about company over the phone for people, who are on their way to a destination and are feeling insecure. Cornelia Vogt, chairman of the Homebound-telephone, will be showing us the effects of sexism in public spaces and how we can make a change.

Investment offensive for the environmental network – public transport summit now!

Workshop EN

Mira Ball

We have had enough auto-mobile summits, now we want to talk about the environmental network (cars, busses, bikes). In September 2020 FFF, ver.di, BUND, BUNDjugend, VCD, attac, EVG, Changing Cities, Campact and Naturfreunde presented their collective position paper for the environmental network and have since been fighting for a public transport summit. With growing numbers of supporters, we would like to discuss our ideas about the mobility transformation and make plans on how to reach our goals.

Joining a ride: matrix and the passenger-ticket

Lecture

Yan Minagawa, Robin Weidner

At this event you will learn about the "Mitfahrscheibe", a ticket or disc similar to a parking disc that informs other people whether you offer lifts or carpools. We will talk about the carpool infrastructure over the last years and discuss its future potential as well as "Packages of Action".

Voluntary traffic turnaround-networking: example of the German Railway Customer Association

Lecture

Frank Böhnke

Formation and foundation of the DBV and examples of successful and failed projects of the voluntary work in the area of mobility.

Mobility as a service

Roundtable

Public transport after Covid-19

Roundtable

Martin Schiefelbusch, Niklas Hoffmann

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of local traffic users has decreased and the public transport had to face financial penalties. Even though studies have shown that the risk for a Covid-19 infection in public transport are overrated, measures for making public transport more attractive will have to be taken. We will discuss the future of public transport and the need for certain measures.

We’re in this together – campaign for climate protection and public transport employees

Workshop EN

Mira Ball

Climate justice and good working conditions in future green jobs are going hand in hand. Ver.di and FridaysForFuture fought for better working conditions in public transport on the occasion of the #tvn2020 tariff campaign. In 2021 their work together will continue. In this workshop we want to talk about our experiences and help you with making alliances between climate activists and workers last.

Passenger appreciation: the inner and outer design of public transport vehicles

Lecture

Stephan Kyrieleis

To attract more people to use public transport, it is not just about the price or offer of rides. Public transport needs a new, confident appearance. When looking at the outer designs of trains, we can conclude whether the customers are being valued or only seen as transport goods. The interior design and its color can make a difference considering the level of comfort of the customers. The costs are also low in comparison to the whole vehicle. We will look at practical examples and the various options, including art.

How public transport providers can increase vaccine access (EN)

Lecture

Stewart Mader

Accelerating COVID-19 vaccination will advance a post-pandemic future in which transit can fully realize its promise. This session will highlight three ways that transit agencies can support vaccination for communities they serve, and explain how accelerating vaccination will help agencies better prepare for post-pandemic service.

Mobility for all: human-facing local traffic

Panel

Public space and therefore also public transit is not accessible for everyone in the same way. For many people mobility means free space and social participation. From this view public transit and its’ easy accessibility is essential for social equity. How can a public be designed to give all people with their different requierments the same chance of mobility?

How will the local traffic & the traffic transformation in Bremen continue?

Panel

Michael Jonitz, Ralph Saxe, Wolfgang Geißler, Anja Schiemann, Janin Schaffer

Bremen is popular for being a bike city. In the summer of 2019 the newly elected federal state government contractually obligated themselves to create a car free city center and fulfilling all traffic transformations that have to result from that step. What has happened since? How the plans of a car free city center, innovation in public transit and attending aspects are pressed ahead? Bremen’s Social Democrats presented their plan last week: With the “Bremen-Ticket” they want to establish a fare-free public transit including a permanent expansion. But the big advancement with one conclusive plan that brings all singular policies of innovation together could still not be found. With ambassadors of political parties, Einfach Einsteigen and one scientist we discuss what is necessary for the success of a green traffic transformation in Bremen.

Public Transport Slam

Cultural event

Written poetry and public transit – how does it work? Various writers show their talent by proving how that works! Some texts about public transit and some about quite different topics are presentet – about all and sundry and between. Pointed texting with a little extra!

Day 4: Sunday, 21. March 2021

Closing Panel

Panel

At this last event we want to end the ÖffiCON*. We will deliberate, look back on the past days and summarize our new ideas. Therefore, we will also be looking forward: What will the traffic turnaround bring us in the future? How can we build a network for this exact purpose and what kind of actions will be needed? This event was all about the "Rethinking public transport!" and we hope that the ÖffiCON* has helped to fulfill it.