The socioeconomic and demographic reality in Germany defies a one-dimensional narrative of "urban" versus "rural": not all rural areas are "disconnected" or disadvantaged. However, the question of the relationship between mobility, infrastructure and accessibility on the one hand and participation, social and generational justice and sustainability on the other arises more frequently here than in cities.

With PeriMobil, the IfL aims to improve knowledge about mobility patterns and the need for mobility services in structurally disadvantaged regions and make them usable for a future mobility transition. In this way, the project takes up the UN Sustainable Development Goals of Reducing Inequality, Sustainable Consumption and Production, and Sustainable Cities and Communities and links them together.

PeriMobil builds on two knowledge bases of the IfL: the analysis and visualization software hin&weg and the qualitative research results from various projects in peripheral regions of Central Germany and Europe.

The analysis of mobility patterns is carried out by the innovative exploitation of mobility data, routine data from different data holders and commercial small-scale data from private sector providers. In doing so, the hin&weg tool developed at the IfL will be extended and optimized. A special focus is on qualitative data. In workshops with local participants from administration and civil society, location- and target group-specific ideas and requirements for attractive mobility in peripheralized areas will be gathered. Based on the suggestions, pilot interviews will be conducted to learn more about mobility aspects that have been little addressed so far.

The project is focused on two case study regions: the inner periphery in the district of Nordsachsen and border areas in the Erzgebirgskreis. The aim is to survey mobility patterns and needs in these peripheralized regions and to make them usable for further research using quantitative, qualitative and visual methods. The results should contribute to the development of an ecologically and socially sustainable mobility that enables social participation and supports the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.