Crowded streets, blocked pavements and poor air quality - many cities in Europe have identified the car as a key obstacle to urban quality of life and are taking innovative, but sometimes harsh, measures to combat increasing car traffic.
In the last ten years, the number of number of cars in Western Europe has increased by 29 million. The consequences of this growth have become particularly noticeable in cities: Space on the roads and at the roadside is becoming increasingly cramped and therefore more contested. This can not only disturb social peace, but also has a direct impact on health, quality of life and, not least, the climate. Some metropolises have recognised this and are increasingly trying to push cars out of city centres with targeted measures.
One of the pioneers in the fight against increasing car traffic is London. There is a reason for this: London's city centre is choking on traffic like no other. With an average speed of 14 km/h, the British capital is the slowest city in the world to drive through. the slowest city in the world to drive through. This is why London has been using a congestion charge since 2003 to get the traffic problem under control. This measure aims to encourage tourists and commuters in particular to switch from their own cars to public transport such as the Tube, double-decker buses and trains or cycling in order to alleviate congestion and air pollution in the City of London. In addition, London has a low-emission zone, where vehicles with high emissions are not allowed to enter at all or only for a high fee. Car traffic in London is to be reduced by 27 per cent by 2030.
"Zero emission" zones are also becoming increasingly popular outside London. They are primarily intended as a measure against air pollution, but also have an impact on traffic density, as it also means a reduction in heavy goods traffic in city centres. Other European cities such as Paris, Oslo and Amsterdam are considering the introduction of such zones. The Netherlands is also planning restrictions for freight traffic in particular. In Amsterdam, 80 per cent of the streets have been 30 km/h since December 2023 in order to make the city cleaner and safer. A 30 km/h speed limit has also been in place in the centre of Paris since last year in order to reduce through traffic, which accounts for half of the city's traffic, and to better protect pedestrians and cyclists. In Germany, an attempt by cities and municipalities to facilitate the introduction of nationwide 30 km/h zones recently failed.
The growing number of cars in cities leads to a variety of social and environmental challenges, such as rising CO2 emissions, noise and air pollution or the displacement of weaker road users. To tackle these problems, more and more cities are opting for a traffic turnaround aimed at reducing car traffic and promoting alternative forms of mobility, such as public transport or cycling.
The focus here is on the sustainable and environmentally friendly design of transport in contrast to the model of a "car-friendly city", which characterised the post-war period and continues to have a negative impact on cities. However, this approach of focussing urban planning on the car has also outlived its usefulness in recent decades, not least due to changes in people's values. Thus For example, more than 90 per centwant to live in cities where they are not dependent on their own car. The image of the "liveable city" as an attractive place to live and work is increasingly taking the place of the car-friendly city. Cities that are described as "liveable" are generally characterised by modern transport planning and an ambitious transport policy.
With innovative measures and a clear focus on the transport transition, cities around the world are setting an example for sustainable mobility. Many cities are focussing on reducing car traffic. Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Vienna are just a few examples of how cities are actively working to reduce the number of cars on their roads.
Highlights:
In Paris, the transport revolution has been in full swing for several years. To improve the quality of life in the city, for example, the riverside roads along the Seine have been closed to cars and made more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. Car traffic has also been restricted in other streets in order to expand the public space and create new green areas. A 30 km/h speed limit applies almost everywhere in the entire city area, and many neighbourhoods are also to become traffic-calmed zones with lower speeds and less through traffic. The city government is also planning to reduce the number of lanes on the city motorway. These measures are already showing initial results: Air pollution in Paris has decreased measurably in recent years.
The beneficiary of this transport revolution is the bicycle. Thanks to the massive expansion of the cycle path network, more and more Parisians are using their bikes for their daily journeys. 52 kilometres of so-called pop-up cycle paths, which were set up with concrete barriers during the coronavirus pandemic, are currently being converted into permanent cycle paths. Other existing cycle routes are being separated from car traffic by kerbs and made safer. For this year's Olympic Games in Paris, the sports venues will be connected by a 60-kilometre network of cycle paths, half of which will be newly constructed.
Parisians are largely in favour of the measures taken by the city government. This was demonstrated only recently: In a referendum, they voted in favour of a significant increase in parking fees for SUVs and other heavy vehicles in the city centre. The new parking fees apply to visitors, residents are not affected.
In concrete terms, this means that parking fees in the city centre for SUVs and other cars weighing more than 1.6 tonnes will increase from 6 to 18 euros per hour. In the suburbs, they will increase from 4 euros to 12 euros per hour. This means that six hours of parking in Paris will cost visitors more than 200 euros in future. Previously, the upper limit was 75 euros.
Such a vote on the future of mobility in Paris is nothing new. Back in April 2023, 90 per cent of Parisians voted in favour of banning e-scooters. As a result, e-scooter providers took their scooters off the streets. E-scooters were criticised in Paris primarily because of the danger and nuisance they caused to pedestrians and their supposedly negative carbon footprint. However, e-scooters have not disappeared from the Parisian cityscape. In contrast to German cities, many city dwellers in Paris use their private scooters.
Highlights:
Amsterdam is the cycling capital of Europe. There are more bicycles in Amsterdam than inhabitants. There are around 900,000 bicycles for every 800,000 inhabitants. They account for 40 per cent of all traffic. Accordingly, the network of well-developed cycle paths with safe crossings is 500 kilometres long. There are also a large number of "Fietsstraaten", which are residential streets on which bicycles ("fietsen") have right of way.
In principle, many of Amsterdam's streets are traffic-calmed. Since December 2023, 80 per cent of Amsterdam's roads have been 30 km/h. Only on major thoroughfares is 50 km/h still permitted. This makes Amsterdam the first city in the Netherlands to introduce a 30 km/h speed limit on so many streets. The aim is to make the roads safer and quieter in response to the increased volume of traffic and the many road accidents. In addition, around 11,000 parking spaces are to be removed by 2025 and the already high parking charges will be increased further in future. From 2030, cars with combustion engines will be banned in the city centre.
The aim of the city is to use these measures to make individual mobility in Amsterdam emission-free by 2030. Car-sharing cars, for example, are intended to make it easier to say goodbye to your own car. Amsterdam residents have over 11,000 of them at their disposal. In Berlin, a city four times the size, there are just 3,000 cars. Electric cars and plug-in hybrids now make up around seven per cent of the city's car fleet. They can be charged at 5,000 public charging points. Mobility hubs promote the switch from car sharing or cycling to public transport and thus enable intermodal transport. In order to reduce emissions from public transport, the bus fleet will be completely converted to electric drive systems by 2025. And the ferries will also run electrically on the 80-kilometre network of waterways in future.
Highlights:
Barcelona is trying to implement the transport revolution with a particularly elaborate plan. The Catalan metropolis is utilising its chessboard-like road network and has been setting up so-called "superblocks" since 2016. Only residents and suppliers are allowed to enter the blocks, which are around 500 by 500 metres long, and through traffic is prevented by redesigning the streets. Instead of parking on the roadside, drivers are only allowed to park in underground car parks and multi-storey car parks. So far, there are only a few of these superblocks, but the plan is to extend them to the entire city area in the current decade, although expansion has recently stalled. The original plan envisages more than 500 of these superblocks, which would free up 60 per cent of the streets currently used by cars for residents and transform them into promenades, public squares or playgrounds, for example. According to a study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, the superblocks are expected to reduce air pollution in the city by 24 per cent and reduce street noise and the effect of heat islands. This could prevent 667 premature deaths per year.
Highlights:
Vienna has been in first place in global rankings on quality of living for years. For example, in the "Quality of Living City Ranking" of the management consultancy Mercer and in the "Global Liveability Index" of the business magazine "The Economist". This also has a lot to do with mobility: Among other things, the Austrian capital is praised for its well-developed public transport network of underground trains, trams and buses. In addition, the 365-euro ticket makes using public transport cheap: the annual ticket for public transport costs one euro per day and is valid throughout the entire transport network. In Vienna, there are therefore more annual pass holders than car owners. Local public transport is supported by a cost-justified parking space managementwhich makes the car less attractive.
The so-called parking sticker - a type of resident parking permit - has been around for over 20 years. Without this, drivers are no longer allowed to park their vehicles in public spaces for long periods of time, but only in multi-storey car parks, short-term parking zones and park-and-ride spaces. Initially, these rules only applied in a few districts close to the city centre, but in 2022 the parking sticker was extended to all 23 districts of Vienna. Vienna has ambitious targets for the transport transition: By 2030, the proportion of journeys made by car is to fall from an already low 27 per cent by international standards to just 15 per cent, and at least half of the approximately 200,000 daily car commuters are to be encouraged to switch to public transport.
In addition to the further expansion of the underground railway, this could also be achieved by strengthening walking and cycling. After all, walking and cycling are also becoming increasingly popular in Vienna. Back in 2015, the city converted Austria's largest shopping street, Mariahilfer Straße, into a pedestrianised zone, and a dense network of other promenades is planned and partly being implemented. Many streets have been converted into traffic-calmed zones or public squares. The expansion of the cycle path network has also made great progress in recent years. The Danube metropolis also wants to lead the rankings of the most liveable cities in the future - thanks to the traffic turnaround.
The initiative by a large number of German cities and municipalities to facilitate the introduction of nationwide 30 km/h zones failed at the end of last year due to resistance in the Bundesrat. German cities are also lagging far behind in Europe when it comes to residents' parking. Although cities now have more freedom than before to set the costs of a residents' parking permit themselves, their legal framework is still limited. After some attempts to increase charges, such as in Freiburg, were overturned by the courts, other cities have become more cautious. Cologne wanted to make residents' parking significantly more expensive at up to 390 euros per year, but recently decided to increase the charges less sharply.
In German cities, the traffic turnaround has gained in importance in recent years, but in many places it has also met with vehement resistance and car-friendly policies. In Berlin, the conversion of Friedrichstrasse into a pedestrian zone was hotly debated and then cancelled. In general, the pace of realising the traffic turnaround in the capital is slow due to the complex administrative structure. A pedestrian-friendly city centre recently failed in Hanover.
