- THE CLASH BETWEEN GROWING MOBILITY AND AUTOMOBILIZATION IN RIGA CAPITAL CITY   58 kb by    Vircavs, Inguss & null, null & null, null | i.vircavs@atdep.rcc.lv    Short Outline In modern life people mobility is important especially within urban areas and thus is affected by the development of transport. Transport provides communications between suburbs of Riga city as well as other regions and towns around it. Regarding to growing automobilization during last 10 years the transportation economy has become very significant for Riga planners. Moreover, it is obvious that the “quality of mobility” is insufficient because transport possibilities in Riga dissatisfy both drivers of private cars and commuters. Thus planning of transport can contribute the improvement of people mobility. The crossing of the river Daugava and the considerable transport volumes in the city core were observed. They are the particular features of Riga transportation system and thus often congestions occur. It is influenced by the fact that street network and other infrastructure are not ready for modern traffic. Besides, bottlenecks are mainly located in the city core as well as in streets leading towards centre. This problem is accelerated due to the lack of unified system of main expressways and the fact that “daily city life” is concentrated within urban core. Modelling of future transport alternatives has been made using The Computer-based Riga Model. In conformity with the results there are noted infrastructure projects like City Centre Bypass as well as Daugava River crossings that have prior importance. However the advancement of transport is necessary to solve by improving infrastructure concurrently emphasizing suburban development outside city centre, which already occurs. There is the essential importance of mass transportation as well as Park & Ride strategies, because it is impossible to work for mobility by only improving transport infrastructure thus on its turn encouraging more car-use. The additional problem is concerned modern Latvian mentality to use private car whenever everybody wants that hinders opportunities to improve mobility. It unfortunately seems impossible to intervene by planners, as automobilization is rather recent feature in Latvia. The assumption is that people will habituate to cars and change little by little their daily life-style as well as opinion for public transport in general. The essential way the planners could work for mobility in Riga is to take into account all the above-mentioned features of Riga. Therefore planning innovations will be implemented using complex approach thus it is necessary for city development. Abstract The quality of mobility in Riga is insufficient because transport possibilities dissatisfy private car drivers as well as commuters. The development of transport is necessary to solve by improving transport infrastructure concurrently emphasizing mass transportation. Thus planning innovations will be implemented using complex approach of these features as well as taking into account the fact that it is difficult challenge for planners to intervene modern automobilization process and common car-use. Keywords Riga, Transport, Mobility Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2001: Honey, I Shrunk the Space   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper