The connections between land use aspects, socio-economics, accessibility and mobility patterns are studied in the EU FP7 project METPEX, where INE, ZHAW is also a partner. INE is leading the work package with focus on land use types and accessibility issues.
Spatial aspects such as living in urban or rural environments, the distance to work or to leisure time activities and the existing transport infrastructure are all influencing the mobility behaviour of individuals. The availability of transport modes and services are relevant for the mobility decisions and can also be observed in the Swiss travel patterns in different types of communities. The share of public transport of the daily mobility is the largest in centres and sub-urban communities, where also the access to public transport services is the highest (see figure below). In agrarian, industrial and rural areas public transport is used for less than 10% of the daily trips. A high income community is a special type of land use classification adjusted to Swiss conditions and it includes areas with a significant share of prosperous inhabitants (BFS&ARE, 2012).
