Hermann Knoflacher

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Hermann Knoflacher (in the middle) and Heiner Monheim (left) during the 18th Federal Environment and Transport Congress BUVKO at the University of Trier on March 19, 2011

Hermann Knoflacher (born September 21, 1940 in Villach , Carinthia ) is an Austrian civil engineer . He is professor emeritus at the Institute for Transport Planning and Technology at the Vienna University of Technology .

Life, research and teaching

Knoflacher studied civil engineering , surveying and mathematics at the Vienna University of Technology. He has been a professor at the Technical University of Vienna since 1975 and has been the head of the Institute for Transport Planning and Technology since 1985 . His teaching focus is spatial and urban planning as well as the influence of mobility . His theses represent an essential contribution to the concept of soft mobility . Since 1982 Knoflacher has been head of the Institute for Transport in the Board of Trustees for Road Safety in Vienna, since 1993 he has been a full member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts , and since 2004 Knoflacher has been President of the Club of Vienna . He is also a member of the Club of Budapest and global pedestrian representative for the United Nations . Since 2004 Knoflacher is also Chairman of the Customer Council of the Wiener Linien , the presidency he will retire on December 31, 2018th Hermann Knoflacher writes the environmental column in the high-circulation Austrian weekly newspaper The Whole Week .

Hermann Knoflacher was called in by the organizer for the transport planning for the Olympic Winter Games in February 2014 .

In 2017 he was awarded the Carinthian Culture Prize.

Criticism of the automotive society

Hermann Knoflacher in his walking gear , a caricature of the enormous space requirements of motorized individual transport

Knoflacher is known for his criticism of the automobile and its consequences for the human environment. For Knoflacher, the car is "like a virus ":

"We retreat more or less voluntarily into sealed houses with noise protection windows in order to leave the outside space to the noise, dust and exhaust fumes of the cars."

- Hermann Knoflacher in a time interview

In 1975 he developed the “walking gear” to show the problems of our transport system. This is a wooden frame that pedestrians can hang around to occupy the same space as car drivers. It is used above all in Austria in demonstrations against car traffic, for more pedestrian-friendliness and the traffic turnaround, and illustrates the criticism of the irrationality of road traffic, especially urban traffic, and its relatively high space requirements, which Knoflacher also formulated.

Impact, conflict with environmental goals

In interviews with Spiegel and ARD , Knoflacher stated that he had initiated measures against car traffic, which were intended to question and partially eliminate the preference given to car traffic. According to Knoflacher, a car should not take up more space than other road users. In fact, it is a multiple. Parking space in cities is subsidized and therefore too cheap. Structural obstacles should force motorists to wait at stops behind public transport. Public transport should set the pace and that of car traffic should be reduced to that.

Critics complain that Knoflacher's policy creates more red lights instead of green waves , which leads to increased braking and acceleration processes, waiting times when idling and very low speeds with increasing pollutant emissions, fuel consumption and noise.

Knoflacher was heavily criticized by the ÖVP , FPÖ and the ÖAMTC for the deterioration he implemented for motorized private transport.

“'For five decades you have been campaigning for a different transport policy and a different transport planning. Did it hit you that you had to take a lot of criticism? '
In the beginning maybe, but actually not back then either. I am always happy when I am attacked personally because that means that my counterpart has no factual arguments. "

- Hermann Knoflacher : Berliner Zeitung , July 22, 2020 (Hermann Knoflacher in an interview with Peter Neumann)

Works

  • Catalytic converters for non-motorized vehicles . Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-900657-00-9 .
  • Pedestrian and bicycle traffic . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1995, ISBN 3-205-98308-4 .
  • For the harmony of city and traffic . 2nd Edition. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1996 ISBN 3-205-98586-9 .
  • Landscape without highways . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1996, ISBN 3-205-98436-6 .
  • Standing vehicles - vehicles: The traffic jam is not a traffic problem . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-205-98988-0 .
  • (Ed.) World religions and capitalism. Tamed capitalism? . Echomedia, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-901761-54-3 .
  • Basics of traffic and settlement planning: traffic planning . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77626-0 .
  • Virus car. The story of a destruction . Ueberreuter, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-8000-7438-9 .
  • TRAFFIC. A plea for a different life . Salzburg, 2013. ISBN 978-3-99014-079-6 .
  • Back to mobility! Impetus to rethink . Ueberreuter, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-8000-7557-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Technical University of Vienna: Portrait of Hermann Knoflacher
  2. ^ Website of the Institute for Transport Sciences at the Vienna University of Technology
  3. ^ Danube University Krems: Portrait o.Univ.-Prof. DI Dr. Hermann Knoflacher
  4. ↑ New chairman for the passenger advisory board on wienerlinien.at from November 26, 2018, accessed on December 2, 2018
  5. ↑ Wiener Linien's passenger advisory board has a new boss on diepresse.com from November 26, 2018, accessed on December 2, 2018
  6. ↑ orf.at: Literature State Culture Prize for Peter Turrini . Article dated December 14, 2017, accessed December 14, 2017.
  7. ↑ Get out of the car trap! . In: Die Presse , April 5, 2013.
  8. ↑ "The car drives us completely crazy" (September 13, 2007)
  9. ↑ Man in the trap , in: Der Spiegel , edition 9/1997, p. 19.
  10. ↑ What was going on, Mr. Knoflacher , in: Der Spiegel , edition 1/2010, p. 44.
  11. ↑ "Some drivers screamed out of desperation" , in: Der Spiegel , edition 10/2018
  12. ↑ Stowage planning correct , ARD Vienna, April 16, 2018
  13. ^ Heinz Steven Symposium Tempo 30 - Opportunities, Obstacles, Experiences Working Group Noise of the German Society for Acoustics, November 8, 2012
  14. ^ Günter Murr Thick air through Tempo 30 , Frankfurter Neue Presse, September 2, 2016
  15. ↑ Josef Gebhard Have traffic jams generated , kurier.at, accessed August 19, 2018
  16. ^ Wiener Verkehrsplaner: "Autofahrer kein Mensch" , oe24.at, accessed August 19, 2018
  17. ↑ Peter Neumann: Verkehr: “The car stands in the way everywhere, also in Berlin. You have to put it away ”. The extension of the city motorway would be madness, a city toll would be nonsense: A conversation with the Austrian mobility expert Hermann Knoflacher about the Berlin traffic. In: www.berliner-zeitung.de. Berliner Zeitung , July 22, 2020, accessed on June 6, 2020 (Hermann Knoflacher in an interview with Peter Neumann).
personal data
SURNAME Knoflacher, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian civil engineer and transport scientist, professor
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Villach , Carinthia