Most of the university members use public transport

More than a half of the university members use public transport for their daily commute to their place of study or work. Another third walk or use a bicycle, pedelec, or e-bike. These are major findings of the 2025 mobility survey, in which a quarter of university members participated between October and November 2025. The results of the survey will be integrated into the climate protection concept currently being worked out by the climate protection management of the university. 
The survey will be repeated at regular intervals as the results will be used as input for the future greenhouse gas balancing of the university. 

Participation of students, lecturers, and staff

Freiburg University of Music has 907 members in the winter semester of 2025/2026. The largest group is made up of 721 enrolled students. In addition, there are 48 staff members and 138 full-time lecturers.

The participation of approximately 20 percent of a group is considered as sufficient to obtain representative survey results. The 2025 mobility survey achieved the following participation rates:

• Students: 16 %
• Staff: 79 %
• Lecturers: 55 %

The student participation in the survey was only at a satisfactory level, while the participation of staff and faculty members was very motivating, achieving a high degree of representativeness.

A total of 231 people submitted valid responses to the online survey.

University members predominantly use sustainable modes of transport

Expectations exceeded – this could be the conclusion of the mobility survey in comparison to the initial assumptions about the mobility behavior of university members. At 16 percent, the proportion of car use is lower than expected. In terms of kilometers traveled, the following findings emerged:

• Public transport is used extensively on the whole (trains, trams, and buses account for 48 percent of kilometers traveled).
  In addition, some university members added the use of long-distance trains, although this was not recorded in detail.
• University members like to keep active: 29 percent of the kilometers traveled are covered on foot or by bicycle.
• The proportion of car use is comparatively low at 16 percent.
• Neither electric cars nor pedelecs or e-bikes are yet widespread.
• Carpooling is rarely or never used.
• The proportion of bus use is low.

Distribution of the traffic volume at Freiburg University of Music

The following table shows the share of each mode of transport in terms of kilometers traveled a year and grouped according to its CO2e relevance. In total a distance of 2,573,871 kilometers was covered. The pie chart is showing the distribution of the traffic volume with the following key numbers: