TITLE:
An Indicator-Based Calculation Tool for Rural Areas to Make Aware of Long-Term Mobility and Residential Costs
AUTHORS:
Eva Haslauer, Dagmar Schnürch, Thomas Prinz, Sebastian Cadus, Bernhard Castellazzi
KEYWORDS:
Mobility and Residential Costs, Rural Development, Cost Calculators
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.5 No.6,
June
18,
2014
ABSTRACT: Due to
high costs of building land, larger available areas in the countryside, and
other personal reasons people often decide to live in or move to suburban or
peripheral areas [1]. The decision of people concerning their residential locations by
only taking into account a cheap building land may at first seem reasonable. However,
after some time the costs for living in suburbs or in the countryside rise up, and
the use of car increases due to a restricted public transport. Travel times to
working places and/or cultural and leisure facilities increase when people move
farther away [2]. Children may need to be taken to the kindergartens or to school by
car because of restricted public transport offers [3]. The rising gas prices cause significantly higher travel costs. These
are just a few facts, why a broad range of aspects should be taken into account
when making residential location decisions. The following article wants to
tackle this topic of long-term cost awareness due to residential location
decisions and present a settlement cost calculator developed for a rural area
in the Austrian pilot region of Salzburg.